Is Zurker A Facebook Killer? Or Is Adblock Plus?

Yesterday I joined cooperative social networking site Zurker. Like Diaspora before it this one is being promoted as a potential Facebook killer. To take over from Facebook any new social networking site needs a critical mass and we haven’t seen this happen yet – but presumably will do at some point. After all, Facebook effectively killed MySpace, and MySpace effectively killed Friendster. However the mechanisms for taking over from Facebook may be more complicated than Zurker founder Nick Oba realises. That said I’m giving Zucker a go and if you want to do so as well you can get an invite to participate in the site’s beta testing by clicking here.

I’m still posting a few times a week at both Diaspora and even occasionally at Identic.Ca (promoted as an ethical version of Twitter) but as yet I haven’t seen much action on  either. Ultimately the real Facebook killer might turn out to be software rather than a rival site. One of the things that drove the Facebook share price down immediately after the floatation (aside from the obvious over-valuation) was a forecast about a downturn in revenue due to increasing numbers of people accessing the site via smart phone browsers that didn’t carry advertising. Now suppose there was also a much higher take up of software that blocks advertising from computer web browsers and that this really spooked the markets? That could create the kind of turmoil around Facebook that might make it more vulnerable to another site taking over a substantial proportion of its users. So maybe more people using Adblock Plus is potentially the real Facebook killer – since Mark Zuckerberg is much more under pressure from outside forces now he’s taken his company public.

And while you’re at it don’t forget to check – www.stewarthomesociety.org – you know it makes (no) sense!