Interview With Mark Zuckerberg On The “Facebook Phone”

Am I the only person that gets scared when I read things like "Instant Personalization"? I don't know that I want IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes to be able to tell Best Buy what film titles I've been looking at.<p>But, of course, I'm also confused why people want to 'be the mayor' of the Starbucks down the street.<p>Is the 'social web' the Tamagotchi of 2010? A short fad that some people will find somehow fulfilling ("I've been the mayor of this Starbucks for 49 months straight!") but that most people move past?

Fascinating, informative interview, that validates most of what TC said in their first article over the weekend. Arrington is on a roll lately.

As far as practical things to take away from this, I particularly like this quote:<p><i>And that clarity was so valuable whereas today it’s like, Ok, we want to go build an app. Even a new product that we launch. We’re working on Questions, and it’s like OK. So we build Questions for the web, then we build the “m” site for Questions, then we build the Touch HTML5 version of questions. Then we build the iPhone version of Questions, and then the Android version, and then maybe.. (Elliot Schrage: iPad…) Right, the iPad stuff. And then we don’t work on a RIM version and then a bunch of people are pissed because it’s not available on their phone.<p>It’s kind of a disaster right now.</i>

Mark Zuckerberg: If I knew who leaked it to you, I would’ve fired them already.<p>[... snip ]<p>Michael Arrington: You said Erick’s working on something else, what’s that?<p>Mark Zuckerberg: Um, oh he’s working on a bunch of stuff.<p>Michael Arrington: What’s the top secret mobile thing he’s working on though?<p>Mark Zuckerberg: I actually think that what he’s working on, is like I don’t think that any of the stuff is that top secret.<p>Michael Arrington: So there’s a theory in talking to my sources that there are…<p>Mark Zuckerberg: That there are levels of top secretness [laughs]? I mean, we have a pretty open culture.<p>Eh?

Basically agree with all his notions about HTML5, which he seemed to mention a lot in the interview. Also the horizontal strategy makes perfect sense because FB wants to be the defacto identity tool for any and every device. Why fight a device war when you don't have to, instead just concentrate on being the platform.

Fantastic interview. Surprised to see how open Mark was about such a collossal strategy.

A social web is one thing, but a social everything is even scarier. Imagine the impact of privacy leaks if Facebook had their tendrils spread to every gadget you used.

this just verifies mike's original article- which means facebook overreacted in response to mike's questionable semantics (see: "building").<p>that said, did anyone <i>actually</i> think techcrunch was suggesting facebook was manufacturing hardware?

Oh, okay. So they're just going to try to take over everyone else's phone.

Reminds me of the famous Steve Jobs quote, "People Don't Read Anymore."

good luck Facebook. You will need it.

I hope everyone who unfairly vented at TC after the initial denial is eating humble pie.