Bill Gates Quits Facebook

From today's WSJ Online:

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has stopped using the Web site Facebook, the most damning indictment in a week full of bad press for social-networking technology.

No we can’t be online friends

Social-networking Web sites, which help people share and find information about one another, were supposed to change the way people use the Internet and the way we work. But lately, all we’re hearing about are the problems.

Workers who created profiles on Facebook are horrified to find out they can't be erased, the New York Times reports. Even if you deactivate your account, Facebook still keeps a copy of all the information you ever posted. And, the Times reports, it’s still possible to contact people through deleted Facebook pages.

From someone who deactivated his Facebook account in protest a while ago, I'm semi-pleased to see this article. I'm very skeptical of any corporate strategy which revolves around social networking on the internet. To me, its the epitome of the "new era" type arguments which almost always turn out to be justifications for building "bubbles." The bubbles usually burst too.