Hacker News Reader

Comment by fkeidkwdq | Hacker News Reader

Comparing Google with Facebook. I was using google since it was pretty unknown, I think it is still, after all these years, a good tool for searching. I will never use facebook, I think local solutions for meeting people will emerge soon and they will be much more appealing and useful.

Facebook only can exists if it can find a way to be a local tool.

View on HN

I've never met anyone on Facebook, they're all people I knew somehow previous to our friending.

Interesting. I would like to know if the majority of people use Facebook like you (with people they knew previously) or they use it to get new connections. How can I get this information? Any poll published somewhere?

I think I can say pretty confidently and without providing any data that most people use Facebook to connect with people they know from real life.

I believe that adding a complete stranger is seen as a bit creepy. Maybe the new Groups feature (like the hacker news group) will change that, but that's only a recent addition.

Maybe for our generation it is, but I can confidently say that this has changed amongst high school students and other youngsters. For them (at least the ones I have contact with), facebook is a tool for meeting new people. Hell, even a few people I know professionally has met their SO on facebook.

I've never met anyone on Facebook either. I've run into the strange misconception from non-facebookers that Facebook is somehow a dating site, which is strange. Obviously those people also perceive that facebook is a way to "meet people."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com