The thing is that Facebook has already started branching out, and they're doing it wrong. When Google started adding things, your account was secondary, and the tool was first. Most of the tools to this day can be used with or without any sort of registration.
Facebook in contrast seems desperate to retain users. Nothing they create is useful without a Facebook account. Rather than pushing out the best products they can, they rely on the strength of vendor lock-in as a crutch.
I'm not even saying this is necessarily the result of some evil plan to take over the web. It's just that when you have the kind of lock-in they have you're loathe to give it up, and it makes you lazy since there are lots of places where you have nothing to measure yourself against but your previous performance.
> "Facebook in contrast seems desperate to retain users. ..."
As well they should be. Born by, and live by, the social network, die by the social network. "You still using the old Facebook?" said with derision by the cool kids is probably what echos in their nightmares. Not the name Diaspora.
Facebook in contrast seems desperate to retain users. Nothing they create is useful without a Facebook account. Rather than pushing out the best products they can, they rely on the strength of vendor lock-in as a crutch.
I'm not even saying this is necessarily the result of some evil plan to take over the web. It's just that when you have the kind of lock-in they have you're loathe to give it up, and it makes you lazy since there are lots of places where you have nothing to measure yourself against but your previous performance.