Also here's a report from Reuters: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65H01W20100618
Well, at least you got to quote Monsieur Balzac. Hell of a name.
As for the retaliatory down-voting, way to stay classy people.
FBs value is in connecting people. Humans are social by nature and FB extends that social nature out many orders of magnitude. Like you, I do wonder if the value is being over hyped. Who needs or even wants 100s of 'friends?' Real friends take time and effort and I wonder if we'll see backlash where people get back to less friends, but closer relationships.
Basically I'm thinking that a browser-server holds your facebook style profile and mediates access to files on your computer (like photos, videos, or anything you like). Your profile could be minimally cached with a lookup service (like linkedin) which would redirect to your browser-server if you're online or provide an "user is offline" page at other times.
Various services could cache your locally held content.
Basically a decentralised version of FB where each user has their profile on their own computer - like the move from file repos to (torrent) trackers.