People Search Digest

In its quest to become a global one-stop site for online communication, Facebook has added a search feature to its messaging system, allowing users to easily locate old messages in their inbox with a click of the mouse. Though this type of feature has been readily available in Gmail and Yahoo among other services, until now Facebook users have had to manually comb through their archives (which in some cases stretch back several years) to find old messages.

Despite the welcome streamlining of a somewhat difficult system, users have expressed mixed views about this latest development. Hardcore tech geeks point out that Facebook’s “messaging system” is not a cohesive email system and should not be treated as such; after all, it was only last year that Facebook allowed its users to send messages to outside email addresses. Others say that this is yet another indication that Facebook has spread itself too thin by catering to too wide a swath of the online population rather than focusing on the niche demographic that initially buttered its bread - in Facebook’s case college students.

The glut of meaningless applications that litter the site aside, the lack of any single, significant value other than the “fun factor” makes it hard to describe what exactly Facebook is useful for. But maybe that’s what Facebook wants. By remaining mutable and non-thematic, Facebook has given itself license to grow beyond the boundaries usually ascribed social networking sites.

It’s no secret that Facebook is aiming to become an independent platform in its own right; that is, a juggernaut of online activity, encompassing everything users might possibly use the Internet for in one carefully branded package - a combination of Google-Craigslist-LinkedIN pumped full of steroids and uploaded to the web, if you will. While the search feature is a step in that direction (as is Facebook’s recent lifting of a 5,000 friend limit per person), it is also likely that Facebook is looking to attract more users and developers to its dwindling coffers. Usage has been down this year and competition from Google’s Opensource program and AOL’s recently acquired Bebo network have also sapped some of Facebook’s invincibility. The construction of better functionality into its already existing structure may work in Facebook’s favor by easing users into an alternate version of their already established online communication. But the question remains: can a social networking website without any individualized theme survive into the next wave of Internet social networking? And how will the non-themed Facebook compete against the already established big boys, Google and Yahoo? What do you think?