Writing the obituary for Facebook

For a little while, for one brief, shining moment, its was really good. By plan or by happy accident, someone had created a near-perfect social media experience. They called it Facebook. It was a place that was truly user-friendly, loaded really fast on pc and smartphone alike. The layout was clean, simple and easy to use. And the best part was it brought everyone together to talk about their day, share photos, rant, vent, praise…whatever was on your mind.

Then, the first crack appeared…Timeline.

When Mark Zuckerberg rolled out Timeline, it made you wonder what else he had been rolling. Timeline is like the greatest Rube Goldberg device ever invented. Timeline is the original zebra, a ‘horse created by a committee’. Timeline stinks. But he didn’t stop there, no ma’am. After that came the Draconian “Use Policies” that banned you for friending people that Facebook begged you to send a friend request to. Next the failed IPO. One unmitigated disaster after another. But July 17, 2012, stands head and shoulders above any and all other acts of unmitigated stupidity that Zuckerberg and Company could dream up. That’s the day they cancelled the Share button.

Do they want to fail?

Mark Zuckerberg is brighter, at least in what they call ‘book smarts’, than the average fella. He breezed through Harvard, if the movie Social Network is to be believed, and created Facebook while ogling photos of female classmates and drinking beer. But even with an accelerated sense of self-importance, I don’t think that even he could envisioned that his Facebook would be adopted by every major Fortune 500 business the world over, and by millions of small to mid-size businesses as well. Or that it would grow to be a multi-billion dollar business in less than 10 years time. But it did.

Part of why businesses were so keen to adopt Facebook is because you could so easily share stories, which led to more readers, which led to advertising revenue and increased sales. The Facebook Share button was worth it’s weight in gold. It would not be overstatement to say it was the driving force behind the success of Facebook. It was genius, and everyone wanted a piece of the action by clicking on it. You could point to a story you did and say “look, my article was shared 34,000 times”, and everyone could clearly see you had a winner. Success begat success. The Share button was the goose that laid the golden egg. On July 17, 2012, Mark Zuckerberg killed the goose, and for no apparent reason.

There was no announcement from Facebook, no leak in the press, nothing. Millions of websites that had spent the last 3-5 years placing the Share button on every page they had woke to find it simply no longer functioning, or displaying obviously incorrect information. Facebook’s position? They don’t have one. Mark Zuckerberg, the Boy Genius of Harvard, simply hit the Delete button and killed his prize goose.

Epilogue

Whoever is in charge over there at Facebook Corp, if anyone truly is, is on a ship that has already struck the iceberg. The question is not will Facebook go belly up, but only of how fast and when. Personally, I think that Zuckerberg, having made his money, is bored to tears and wants out. Either that or he is clinically insane. How else do you explain economic suicide loosely dressed up as business decisions?

Goodnight, Mr. Zuckerberg, and goodbye to you, Facebook. We hope you both enjoyed your 15 minutes.