Chapter 10: Facebook to let users add names to profile addresses

http://www.canada.com/Technology/Facebook+users+names+profile+addresses/1685792/story.html

Summary
The popular online networking website, Facebook, will start allowing users to use their full name as part of the online addresses for their profile pages. Every member will be given a personalized URL that will be in the format facebook.com/ followed by the user’s name. This new method allows for friends to easily find each other. According to Facebook designer Blaise DiPersia, “Your new Facebook URL is like your personal destination, or home, on the web.” Having user names as part of the URLs will make it easier while browsing friends’ pages as well as online search engines such as Google. Facebook’s competitor MySpace has been using personalized user names for close to five years now.

Connection
Facebook is a very popular website that connects friends from all over the world. Since the beginning, when it had just started in 2004, Facebook’s competitor was MySpace. Chapter 10 teaches us the different types of competition that exists , which include: perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly, and many differentiated sellers. The last category, many differentiated sellers is the circumstance which Facebook and MySpace is competing in, which means that there are a large number of competitors, but each product is unique and there are differences that make it possible to distinguish one product to the next. Facebook and MySpace are very similar in terms of the purpose of the website: an online social network. But their features and what they have to offer are different and that’s what attracts their users. Since MySpace has been using personalized URLs for quite some time now, Facebook has decided that it’s time that they jump in and allow users to have that choice. By doing so, they’re hoping to attract new users to their already growing community of 200 million users worldwide.

Reflection
Just like any other typical teenager, I have already been attracted to this popular online social network. During February of this year, Facebook was ranked as the largest social networking site. I would understand why. Facebook allows childhood friends to reconnect even after they’ve been separated for twenty some odd years. While travelling and meeting new friends, Facebook will easily minimize the distance between the two friends. What I love about Facebook is that there’s a security feature that allows the user to set their privacy level. Whether they would like to only have their friends be able to see what’re they’re up to or allowing the whole world in on the details. This will keep away all unwanted predators, so users will not be unsafe while using this online social network. MySpace on the other hand, does not have this feature, and anyone will be able to access a user’s page. This could be one of the reasons why Facebook has surpassed MySpace as the largest social networking website.