back to article Greedy web borg Facebook to SLURP news websites' golden nuggets

Facebook's assimilation of the web shows no signs of stopping: Mark Zuckerberg's social network is persuading media giants to host their coverage within Facebook.com. With well over a billion users a month, and its quarterly revenue increasing beyond expectations again in Q4 2014, FB will have been able to enter conversations …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't be worse than the new BBC site

    'nuff said.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can't be worse than the new BBC site

      Average BBC cock-up - they got the user feedback from the Teletubbies show mixed up with the specs for the new web site. An innocent mistake, especially just before an election when people may want, you know, to know what's go on in words of more than one syllable.

    2. Vimes

      Re: Can't be worse than the new BBC site

      You mean the BBC site that has fonts that change size depending on browser window width, layout that seems to be controlled by JavaScript as well as CSS(*), HTML errors that seem to include duplicate IDs and unclosed tags(**), more awkard navigation and the overriding assumption that the reader has an IQ in the single digit range?

      Is *That* the BBC site you're talking about?

      (*) An assumption, but the mobile layout seems to be displayed when viewing the pages with JavaScript disabled on the desktop regardless of the browser used which suggests layout is controlled via JavaScript.

      (**) Results of W3C validator run against news.bbc.co.uk

      1. Florida1920

        Re: Can't be worse than the new BBC site

        @Vimes

        *) An assumption, but the mobile layout seems to be displayed when viewing the pages with JavaScript disabled on the desktop regardless of the browser used which suggests layout is controlled via JavaScript.

        Noticed the same thing. Had all scripts off and got a mobile-y looking page. Turning on bbc scripts one at a time, things started appearing. But what appears is mostly links to short videos. I'm sorry, a couple of minutes of some talking head with a few seconds of Merkel speaking is not how I want to receive news. Words! Give us some text we can read, re-read, think about and analyze. It's the BBC FFS!

        1. Vimes

          Re: Can't be worse than the new BBC site

          And they seem to be sharing browsing habits with third parties too. Nice.

          Ooh, and a call to www.googletagservices.com too. Even though I'm in the UK and they shouldn't be showing any advertising. Complete with what looks like debug code being left in the page. Even better.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Can't be worse than the new BBC site

      The list of entities listed as having possible deals are all circling the drain.

    4. roblightbody
      Facepalm

      Re: Can't be worse than the new BBC site

      I'd rather have a bad WWW site, than a "good" Facebook site any day.

      Love the web. Hate Facebook.

  2. elDog

    Facebuck is already blocked by multiple filters

    All of my browsers (Chrome, Firefox, xxxIExxx) have filters to stop that leech from even knowing that I visit a page that has a "Like" button on it.

    I refuse to do product/event sign-ups if I'm directed to a fb page. I'll phone or skip the product.

    If TimeWarner, Sony, Disney, whoever want's to put their content in a fb garden compost pile, so be it. I'm not going there.

  3. Zippy's Sausage Factory

    This does start to raise the question - what is Facebook actually FOR? What does it do? Why would I use it?

    The moment a site stops being able to answer that question is the moment you know it's just slapped on a pair of water skies and jumped over a shark...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Why would I use it?"

      For me it is only a means to check up on/interact with my dispersed family. Anything that Facebook wants to throw at me such as 'trending' topics, I ignore.

      If anyone sends me a link I make a point of copying it and checking it out in a separate browsing session, so Facebook has no information on my interest. The linked-to site, of course, does get the traffic, which is as it should be.

      But you're right - if this crap becomes Facebook's primary purpose then it will have jumped the shark.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The NYT describes "typically... about eight seconds" of loading time for those following links to media articles elsewhere

    Perhaps if those "media articles elsewhere" would stop embedding ads, javascript, and "social buttons" dynamically sourced from across a third of the internet, in every single page, they might improve their load times a tad.

  5. frank ly

    You can log out any time you like ....

    .... but _we will_ never leave.

    (I failed at any attempt to extend the lyrics. Sorry.)

  6. Elmer Phud

    When I were a lad

    It used to be Ol' Rupes that was consuming all before, then it was Google that was taking over the planet - now it is Facebook.

    I'm waiting for the modern version of a Godzilla film - I just hope we survive the fallout.

    1. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: When I were a lad

      Yeah, Godzilla's fallout must be monumental scat.

  7. Ian Michael Gumby
    Big Brother

    And so we have come full circle....

    I remember the internet, when it was only a handful of tech companies and universities. And there was this thing called Usenet....

    Back then, there were walled off dial up sites offered by Compuserve and AOL. You dialed up and you were in your private own little world with no concern of bothering us techies.

    Then they got out and AOL died. Now we have FB which again is trying to rail everyone in to their little world because the longer you stay in FB, the more money they can make because they are gathering more data about you...

    Weird isnt it?

    1. JimmyPage Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: And so we have come full circle....

      1970, the only way to access a "computer service" was via a terminal which displayed what the machine in an air-conditioned locked room was doing.

      2015 the preferred way to access a "computer service" is via a terminal which displays what the machine in an air-conditioned locked room is doing.

  8. Florida1920
    Terminator

    Facebook, the AOL of the 21st Century

    That is all.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: Facebook, the AOL of the 21st Century

      I'm not so sure it's even that good.....

      1. Tom 13

        Re: Facebook, the AOL of the 21st Century

        Other than collecting their hot/cold beverage trivets, I managed to avoid AOHell in my personal use. I did have to use it occasionally have to suffer through using it because a client did. Running MS updates over a 33.6 and their internet service was a nightmare. Damn thing was always timing out midway through the downloads. I did have a Compuserve account for a while (long before Al popularized his invention), then I found local boards which were just as effective. Around the time Netscape released their browser I found an ISP that would let me go direct to the internet. I never looked back. Only thing I keep kicking myself for is missing an opportunity to join a little startup that soon became part of the backbone of the internet. Unfortunately, my skill set just didn't match up, and my debts were to high to take a year off to retrain.

  9. elaar

    "news sites".... "buzzfeed" wtf? "22 ways to eat a pineapple", "58 ways to steal photos/gifs from other websites" gah.

  10. Tom 35

    golden nuggets

    They ones they got from Twitter after they fired all the real reporters?

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