Facebook, technology and adoption ...

We’ve had requests before from clients who want to build social networks like Facebook. Apart from the fact that it’s better to rather make use of the communities in Facebook than to try and build new communities from scratch, it got me thinking about how to go about building a site like Facebook… if one had to.

Let’s be honest, it’s a fantastic site, as it does what it is meant to do really, really well. But what about the technology behind it?

It’s written in PHP, which is an open source server side scripting language, and it uses AJAX (which is brilliant as it only refreshes portions of the page, instead of the whole page), and it uses Javascript for some really nice effects. It’s done very well. But all of these options have been around for a long time, way before Facebook was developed.

So, there is no way you can say Facebook was successful because it uses new and latest technologies to deliver a solution. It’s successful because Facebook put it all together better than anyone else, and that the Internet users were ready to make use of social networks.

So my question is, with people always looking for the “next big thing” and the “latest technology” to make a great product…. is it new technology driving us or people’s readiness to make use of new technology?

Watch and analyse how people are using the internet… you don’t need fancy technology, just an understanding of what people are ready for and what they want.

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