Facebook vs. Everything Else

Facebook is trying to become the Internet itself, enticing users to send messages, post statuses, create photo albums, etc. These are all capabilities that are available freely or very cheaply elsewhere, and have been for years.

But now, thanks to Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and company can check out everything you post. You can allow them to use your name and picture in their sponsors’ ads. And they can decide what your friends and followers will see according to their own secret rules.

So just in case you don't want to give Facebook the keys to your home, here are some other options.

Facebook Feature	Alternative
like	phone call
messages and inbox	email
groups	Yahoo! groups, Google groups, mailing lists
status post	blog
photo album	web page, Picasa, Flickr and many others
news feed	RSS
wall	email, text message, sticky note
timeline	blog
notifications	email, RSS
games	Oh, please!
pages	web page
friends	um … real life?