YAY? Weblo Cheapens Facebook ‘Friendship,’ Whales Rejoice!
“Real Friends Don’t Share,” I headlined in August, calling Facebook the “anti” social utility, to the chagrin of Facebook “friend” accumulator Robert Scoble, “whale.”
What happens if we alll strive to become Robert Scobles, racking up thousands of Facebooker “friends” with the goal of using Facebook as a personal, branded (distribution) sharing platform for every piece of self-produced multimedia content until we “friend” each other to the clutter breaking point, I asked.
After all, what kind of sharing shows you care more? Clicking a Facebook button to push third-party, unfiltered content on an automated daily basis to dozens, hundreds of other Facebookers OR personally forwarding hand-picked articles on a case by case basis to those “people” you know will want and appreciate them?
Social utility IS the right word to describe how Facebook is succeeding in automating, neutralizing and devaluing friends and friendships, I underscored.
NOW, Facebook whales REALLY have the opportunity to leverage to their personal advantage the thousands of so-called friends they proudly lay Facebook claim to, thanks to Weblo, where the worth of online “friending” is measured in cold, hard cash!
Discover how much your friends (digital assets) are worth, Weblo exhorts, after all “time is money,” the money-making VC backed startup affirms. Weblo is determined to set user generated content things straight so Facebookers, and many others, can “get rewarded for your online popularity.”
In other Weblo words, the more “friends” a Facebooker can boast, the more money he or she can wring out of his or her online “friendships”:
Why aren’t you getting paid for the time you spend online? First you need to find out what your digital assets are worth. Digital assets are online videos, social networking profiles, blogs and email addresses. Follow these simple steps and start making money from your digital assets (by letting Weblo place ads in your personal online spaces).
Calculate the value of any digital asset, If you own this digital asset, Claim It and start Making Money.
Weblo CEO Rocky Mirza is outraged: Facebookers should be getting paid for the “friends they draw to their pages.”
It is the purported Facebook “friends” that ought to be up in arms, though. Scoble has acknowledged his Facebook “friends” aren’t really, in explaining why he doesn’t personally email everyone:
I find I have too many friends, even if you count just the “real ones” that I’ve had a beer with as a friend.
The notion of “real” friends gets murkier, and costlier, by the Facebook day!
MORE: Dear Facebook, Beacon Tracking STILL Evil: Will Zuckerberg Partners Repent? and Facebook is ‘Sorry’? Savvy Users Will Forget, NOT Forgive, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook: Bloggers Kick Zuckerberg Off Throne, What Were They ‘Smoking’?” and Beacon Privacy Solution: STOP USING FACEBOOK!
PLUS:Edgeio Web 2.0 Bomb: Michael TechCrunch Arrington Cheers $5 million Startup Loss and Henry Blodget Slams eBay’s Whitman: Yahoo’s Yang Next? and Reid Hoffman: LinkedIn About Face (book) and Google Zeitgeist: $200 University Payola AdWords Scam