Unthink

[addy]

http://news.yahoo.com/social-network-unt...05500.html

Facebook and Google+ have a new challenger. Unthink, currently in its beta release stage, promises different terms of service from other social networks. It gives users, who they will call "owners", full ownership of the content they post: meaning Unthink will not be staking ownership and selling user info, activity, and logs to advertisers-- in contrast to Facebook, which has given itself permission to do so (and sometimes to an alarming degree. Even deleted info is fair game). To get a free account in Unthink, users/owners can choose from a list of advertisers which one they would be willing to host on their page. If they want zero advertising, they can choose to pay for the account for 2$ a year. There is also a separate section in Unthink for advertisers where account users/owners can go and interact with brands by choice (and get points/deals for their trouble), as opposed to the Facebook model where the user's personal page is bombardment with company advertising.

Sounds like a nice arrangement overall. Time will tell if its gonna be successful (quite a few challengers have failed to make a dent on Facebook), and if privacy issues will be enough to make people jump ship. It's at least an interesting alternative. What do you think?

[Wildcard]

I think Facebook is invincible for now. Like I said in the other thread, the user group is firm. Everybody that you know is either on FB or has pictures of them or posts about them on FB. There is the option to download all your pictures and posts from FB to save them, but importing them into Google+ or Unthink will never be supported as some kind of batch process. And the individual transfer of the posts and comments would be impossible. These things have value to the mindless poster (I should know) while the important things like security, individuality and class escape them. Their demographic includes a strong teen market who never worry about who sees their stuff and although they are usually willing to try new things, they also get bored very easily. In my own personal experience, I registered for Google+ which was a limited, invitation only type thing. That's really the only thing that drew me in. Once I tried it, I had to admit it was set up better than FB, but my friends weren't there. Telling them about it didn't work and crusading for some possibly doomed social networking site isn't my bag so after a couple of weeks of having less than ten friends, I abandoned it and never looked back.

[srijantje]

let's merge the 2 threads,don't you think Addy?

That's another big minor then,i didn't know you get swamped with ads on your home page,no way to block them?

[addy]

I asked billy if we should merge, but that got vetoed . No worries, i'll just reply in the other thread

I think its more along the lines of spam. Companies get to message you about special offers and things like that.

Good point, Mark. People have spent years building up their facebook page, and no support for transferring means its just too much trouble. Security and privacy is a nice thing, but it seems trying to rally a facebook boycott is too much of a long shot. Until Facebook can be pressured by law into changing its Terms of Service, it's likely things aren't gonna change.