Just a thought
slightly concerned that facebook is the number 1 google search in the UK, for 2 reasons. One is the obvious - everyone is using it and thats slightly scary in a SkyNet kind of way. But two, why are people Googling it? Is everyone like my mum who thinks she can run itunes by typing it into google - she gets confused when she gets a page of search results and cant work out why itunes doesnt start.

It seems to me that the vast majority of people click on "INTERNET" and just start typing. By default that might be the google search input box, and they type facebook. If they typed the URL, or chose it from a book mark then it wouldnt be a search obviously.

But its the most popular search. Which means a lot of people are using facebook. And still searching for it. So no one is learning that they can type URLS in directly and skip out a whole step, despite obviously doing it time after time.

Ergo this country is made up entirely of retards. Is there a country that isnt? I'd quite like to go and live there. I actually fancy france. They do nice food.

And another thing... if Facebook was switched off, deleted, gone, overnight, do you think anyone would give a shit after about 24hours? There would be headlines for a day, then.. nothing. Would anyone even bother to complain? What is the point of it? I have an account, that i mostly gave up on 3 weeks after opening, I blindly accept the friend requests "just in case i need to get in touch with Ian Cook who I worked with for 18 months in the early 90's" and now that there are some work colleagues on there that I dont really care about, i can see what they do at weekends but thats ultimately dull. It really is a rather tragic site. I think I might try and get people to leave it. I think that might be worthwhile. We could all, you know, do something else.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 9:18, 20 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I have been known to use google rather than type the address
not for facebook, or other sites I use frequently, but it does save on a small amount of typing...

I'd be really interested to see what happened if facebook just went away

I certainly wouldn't give a shit!
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 9:22, Reply)

How would people protest though?
They wouldn't be able to set up a facebook site about it, they would be totally stumped.

I like the idea of facebook, a way of sharing photos with your friends and organising events and stuff without millions of group e-mails, but the reality of it is pretty dire.
(Bazongaloid, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 9:31, Reply)

agree with al - yes it's useful for that purpose.
If it was gone overnight, I'd say there'd be a spate of teen suicides as they'd lost all their 'friends'.

Not just teens either, I fear, as a lot of people seem to base their self-esteem on just how many facebook strangers they can corral.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 9:37, Reply)

I cant understand why this isnt more popular.
( enoughblueskyforsailorstrousers, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 9:43, Reply)

I think facebook suddenly disappearing
would have an effect on a lot of people that would absolutely horrify us.

I've long since stopped accepting friend applications from people I either don't know, don't like, or don't want to talk to, and I've removed a bunch of people who fall into those categories that slipped through in the initial frenzy

still get loads of bloody requests, but at least I hardly get any application ones anymore!

Back before I went to uni I worked at a website design place with some mates and we tended to go to at least one party a week. As a way of practicing our skills we made a site quite a lot like facebook to let everyone know what we were doing that week and to host the photos complete with captions of the previous events.

Thinking about it, we should have capitalised on it.

Someone offered my mate a fair wedge of cash for our domain name (www.getwrecked.com) at one point. The tosser turned it down!
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 9:43, Reply)

Yeh, my stupid friends
do the same, for pretty much everything. Facebook, hotmail, bbc, they just google it then click the first link (don't even use 'i'm feeling lucky')

I tell them everytime that you can just type it in the address bar and press Ctrl+return and it'll take them straight there.

Don't know why it annoys me so much though.

Agree that facebook is quite useful, the message threads are good for my mates and I to arrange stuff without waiting for replies from everyone.
(gin'll fix it, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 9:52, Reply)

It is good for organising things
but a couple of my mates don't use it at all, and so haven't been invited to events and the organiser has gone "it was on facebook!"

it's not a suitable substitute for actually talking to someone!
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 9:57, Reply)

quite right, Vipros!
That's a tad myopic.

Like saying, "I have a phone - why cant I call you?"

Cos I dont have a phone - duh!
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 10:33, Reply)

I hadn't thought of it quite like that Baz
but you are 100% right!
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 10:36, Reply)

Re living in France
The last time I went abroad I eventually found myself in the Delirium Taphouse (Brussels) talking to a Parisian guy who'd come to Belgium to study. He was telling me he'd love to come and visit London because "all the English people I've met seem really polite and friendly."

Whereas all the Parisians, he said, are "rude, self-centred idiots."

I insisted that he'd got this entirely the wrong way round, and that Londoners could be far worse than Parisians. Evidently it's a bit of a "grass-is-greener" debate. But you're right, they do have nice food.

As for Facebook: if it fucked off overnight, I'd notice one major difference - my friends would send out emails to people they actually wanted specifically to talk to, as opposed to sending non-facebook types like myself the email with the slightly condescending "for those not on facebook" subject line.
Edit: Vipros and Baz - I agree entirely.
(LongJohnBaldry, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 10:54, Reply)

no idea but
i had a slightly - um - dodgy dream about you last night (coke)!

which is odd, as i have absolutely no idea what you look like, but never mind.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 11:22, Reply)

headlines?
there would be headlines about the disappearance of a useless pile of shite?

granted, there were headlines when tony blair left power...
(bamboozled Can hear you getting fatter, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 11:39, Reply)

*This thread is immediately on hold*
Until Rachelswipe clarifies exactly what she dreamed of.

As for looks, imagine a Johnny Depp/Josh Hartnett crossover, and then jump to Jimmy Nail.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 13:01, Reply)

it was nothing
that i'd admit to this side of 7 vodka shots! i blame the filth on this qotw for warping my fragile little mind.

you were very good, though, "ain't no doubt" about that (limited jimmy nail knowledge = tenuous links).
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 13:06, Reply)

hehe
wait till i get home and tell.. erm.. actually, maybe not. I still slightly blushed though. Well done. If i ever have a dream involving you and the Stockport Grammar Uniform you'll be the first to know. Actually that might not work, just remembering yellow trim.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 13:13, Reply)

Yellow trim
love you long time.

oh yes.
(bazmorningstar efil4nat3b, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 13:15, Reply)

oh god, that uniform!
grey pleated skirt, with the obligatory rolled over waist to make it into a mini, white shirt, black tie and black blazer. with a yellow trim, as you said. heinous yellowness! it must be the only school uniform that post-school boyfriends never want you to model.

let's go for the elizabethan pub uniform instead, black skirt and white shirt, much less offensive.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 13:24, Reply)

I was at the Liz
yesterday on the way home from work. We stared at the people over the road sitting outside the erm, thingy, not the orangery, the one to the left.

But yes. White blouse it is. Always works that one.
( I have run out of coke is a little sweaty, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 13:49, Reply)

*scribbles* white... blouse......
ah, the liz. not been there in months.

although i found out my colleague, who is about 2 years younger than me, lives on the road next to it. i probably served her when she was underage.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 14:39, Reply)

You complete two-faced bastard!!
You said you wanted to be my friend :(

love, Ian Cook
(catapilla is sorry he wasted, Thu 11 Dec 2008, 19:20, Reply)