Bottom Rung

Under Fire: The Corner Coffee Shop

Local coffee shops everywhere are under attack. However, Starbucks and Tim Hortons are not to blame.

Social networking sites like Facebook and programs like MSN Messenger are allowing people to easily connect with their friends over the internet. Because of this, people are increasingly choosing IM chats over meeting up in person. But even with all of these virtual connections being made, traffic on Facebook is beginning to decline in some markets. (most notably, the US) This has only fueled the fire of late in the blogosphere which has seen more and more people jumping on the I hate Facebook bandwagon.

But the truth is that Facebook, as a product, is starting to mature at a rate that is even out pacing its creator, Mark Zuckerberg. Not even 5 years old and Facebook is starting to show its age. Minor issues have been plaguing this site lately including “Friend Spam” and the introduction of Beacon, which created yet another backlash from its ever vocal users.

So what is the future of social networking sites, specifically Facebook? For me, it all comes down to putting the vast Facebook database to good use.

One possible idea is that of utilizing the GPS chips being built into smart phones like the Blackberry Curve. Imagine walking down the street and getting a text message from Facebook saying that your friend Maria is having tea just down the street at a coffee shop. Using Facebook, your phone figures out where you are in relation to your friends and alerts you when they are in the vicinity. Building on that, you could then pull up Google Maps and get a visual map of all your friends in the area.

Google Maps could easily track you using GPS and Facebook has been keeping tabs on its users for years. Obviously, privacy concerns come to the forefront with this type of proposition but thanks to Facebook’s strong privacy controls this sort of thing could be kept out of the wrong hands.

While Facebook may be maturing, social networking as a medium is still fertile ground on which many future successes will be built. Coming up with innovative ways to use the information Facebook stores on its users will be the next big hurtle for the popular social networking site. And creating new ways for people to connect outside of the virtual world may mean the triumphant return of the local coffee shop.