Microsoft made a mistake with its investment in Facebook. Just because Google has made a business out of Internet advertising doesn’t mean that a traditional software company is going to do well here, too.

Facebook is likely to be seen as Microsoft’s ace in the Web 2.0 Wars. Google gave birth to the “online OS” by providing many of the applications you might expect to find in installable form. Today, others, such as Facebook, are growing exponentially because they offer much more than just “another social medium.” Yet as great as the little widget-like applications that everyone is going nuts over at Facebook are, at its core, Facebook can and will become yesterday’s news someday. Here’s why:

  • Pull the plug. Seriously, just pull the plug on the connectivity to that platform and watch all of that Web 2.0 nonsense deflate right before your eyes. Whether it be a localized issue with being able to connect to any specific portal/service/ or worse, an international hiccup in the world’s ability to connect to the Web 2.0 company. It could happen…
  • Besides eyeballs, what is the real value that Facebook is providing? Exactly, it’s a roundabout way to reach ad dollars. At the end of the day, Facebook joining Microsoft’s own portfolio will be great for Facebook but it’ll do very little for a company like Microsoft. Why? Microsoft is the new IBM as Facebook is the new Yahoo! (1990s era). Microsoft knows enterprise, but it has seriously lost its traction with most home users in almost every sense of the word. This is just a fact; people have been burned badly with high MS Office prices and Vista incompatibilities. Microsoft needs to focus on one business at a time as far as I’m concerned.
  • Microsoft needs to understand that the way it develops software is dying. This doesn’t mean Microsoft will cease to exist in the near future, but the closed source mindset with mobile OS is taking its last breath. Same goes with Facebook. As a trend, sure, it’s cool. Yet to dump millions into it is just plain reaching for the stars and proof of a stale Redmond development scene.

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