The Hubris of G00gle-Timeline – Thoughts on the Internet – Blogs Are Cool, so Is Google

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Yahoo! ...was what I thought when I finally could recall the name of this early blog-service called Xanga. Does anyone remember? What about MySpace, Second-Life or Ebay? All these past "next big things" were as replaceable as a pair of jeans - baggy today, hipster tomorrow... It´s all in the past now, long gone. Only Amazon prevails.

Couple of years ago, I just had discovered Facebook, Ebay was big. In Internet-terms it was just them and Google back then. Today, Ebay is still out there, still works, still makes money. But like an old hooker its best days are over. Google on the other hand is like the Nazis, a giant juggernaut – constantly on the move, constantly in change. What started as a search-engine now is something like the internet. A huge company that owns it all: AdSense, Maps, Youtube, Blogger (oh, I´m screwed), Gmail, Android, with server farms and clouds.

Yeah, google rocks. I want google to be the mother of my future children.

I got carried away.
Few weeks ago Facebook established a new service called timeline. It shows everything you´ve ever done in your entire life on a - well - timeline. Or almost everything. It starts with “Birth”. Then there is a 25-year gap. Since I can´t find my childhood on fb, I am not sure I´ve ever had one...

I don´t know why I´m writing this anyway. There is no point. Ten years from now nobody will hardly remember facebook. This social network is not made for eternity. Maybe it serves us for a couple of years to get hold of our friends, to post links or as an easy instant messenger. But it won´t prevail. There is already a successor out there. I don´t know it yet. But as soon as it gets hip and all the hot chicks are there, I will be there too.

That is the hubris of Facebook: it`s so big, so cool, so everywhere and inevitable that no one can imagine a world without it right now. But, nothing is eternal, except for “god”, google and grunge-music. (Okay, right, google equals “god”.) So that timeline-thing is just a joke. 25-year gap. Couple of years of importance. And then… as soon as all the stupid kids from school want to ad you as a friend, you know it´s over. Timeline seems to be a nice idea for heavy users, but it ridicules itself if there are only some sporadic entries. Timeline is going to be facebooks tombstone, where you can see when the thing eventually collapsed and was finally over.