Facebook currently has over 500,000,000 users, yes that’s 500 million! An almost unbelievable statistic, coupled with the fact that most users are active it is an Internet behemoth and will almost certainly be a very profitable machine.

Twitter has fewer active users but their figures are also very impressive with a user base of around 200 million.

Both of these platforms outshine even online newspapers for breaking news and events to family and friends, so much so that online newspapers are actually becoming slightly less relevant than they were just a few years ago. You only have to take the recent Osama Bin Laden death to know that most of us get a lot of our news directly from our online networks on both of these platforms.

Creativity Vacuum

Where I think Twitter and Facebook fail is in their business models. The current thinking (or lack thereof) is that build up users and then start displaying advertising from 3rd parties among the content on various pages.

Google was the first large Internet player to do this successfully and have reaped billions and billions of dollars in advertising revenue on this model and will continue to do so. Why this is successful is very simple, users search for information and Google displays as close to relevant information back to the user as their algorithms allow.

Newspapers do the same thing, they attract visitors to their websites and then display advertising amongst and over (annoying their users) content and generate most of their online revenue from doing so.

This model is a problem for Twitter and Facebook and Online Newspapers because users do not use or behave the same way on these sites as they do on Google and other search and retrieve related entities. We use Twitter and Facebook to tell others on what we are thinking, what we are doing and where we are going, we gather news from Online Newspapers to share ones that interest us to our networks or to keep ourselves up to date. In short we generally have conversations on Facebook and Twitter and we use newspapers to gather information on the days events.

What is needed from these entities is a creativity revolution, one that value adds the offerings to those of us that want to become power users.

Online Newspapers

I am going to use the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age Newspapers as these are clearly the best newspapers in Australia. Each day I visit both of these websites to read up on news and events and each day I try to avoid any annoying ads across these sites.

What if I became a member of either of these websites? I really get nothing in return, making the added value proposition worthless. However what if the hierarchy thought a little differently about their business model.

What if for say $100 per annum, I could get an enhanced mobile version for both my smart phone and my Android or iPad tablet? What if my membership included the ability to sell my unwanted sofa quickly and easily? What if I could sell my car, engage a real estate agent, advertise open positions at my company? What if all of this was included in one simple interface and for one simple price? I don’t know about you, but I would pay this money without a second thought. Why? Because I trust the company, I know they have the biggest user base and I know I have one place to go to do these things if I choose!

Facebook

If you read the above with interest, could you imagine if Facebook did the same? This would send shivers up the spine of any newspaper across the globe, simply because newspapers have lost control of their users and have been slow to innovate. Facebook could very easily do the same thing and to be honest, I think they would win this battle. Facebook currently has the dumbest advertising platform of all of these entities combined.

As an example if you ever had the miserable pleasure of adding some of your favorite movies, books or music to your profile you will immediately notice your Facebook wall being filled up with junk advertising from related advertisers. They must have been up all night thinking about that one – pathetic!

Facebook is so bad with their business model that it only serves to annoy their base and this is a true crime in the online world and may someday open themselves up to competitors. It also will cost them billions in the long term as users will simply change their behavior.

Facebook should also offer an enhanced version one with stronger privacy cooler profiles and a tranche of new offerings including the above, classifieds, cars, jobs and houses. I should also want to store with the options to share HD Videos, HD Photography and enhanced mobile versions all for a simple annual fee.

Twitter

Twitter worries me, it is no longer a must-be destination for the average Joe consumer or small business. It is slowing down dramatically and may only useful in the future for disseminating news and events. Sure it is still relevant but it maybe just a niche player in a few years.

For the power user it still offers some great insights and I do get great information, but more so from a select group of people I follow.

Summary

In summary I think the advertising model is flawed across Online Newspapers, Facebook and Twitter and needs some real creativity. I am convinced the model of the future for sites that have massive user bases is enhanced offerings all paid for with one simple annual fee.

Cartagena, Colombia

Internal Linking

This is one of the features I have been waiting for. Adding internal links as you know is very good for SEO. So having the ability to also go through your current site and find links to update is also a cool feature.

Admin Bar

As I use WordPress.com as well, I could see this being included. Allows you admin access to the sites backend whilst viewing the live site – from the live site. A nice little addition. Especially for developers who are completing a website and need to jump in and out regularly.

Ajax Admin Screens

Again a feature I have been waiting for, I do a lot of heavy content websites with hundreds and sometimes thousands of posts and pages. Being able to get deep into a sites quickly and accurately is important and this feature will be welcomed.

Improved UI for Searching/Browsing Installed Themes

Not a big deal for me, but for people who like to continuously upgrade themes (developers nightmare) this is a nice little feature.

Post Templates / Post Styles

An absolute brilliant idea. Being able to separate styling by post type. As an example if the post is a video you can select video template, photos gallery – photo gallery template. Tumblogs do this very effectively and this is a huge leap forward for the guys at wordpress and designers will love it – although it will be more work. Basically, this allows designers to style posts accordingly.

Advanced Taxonomy Queries

This feature creates a much simpler way to run advanced queries. For example, right now there is no way to ask for posts that are in the “Health” category but lack the “Diabetes” tag. This causes users to create complex cat systems to simulate multiple taxonomies. This will make sorting of posts and other post types much easier for developers.

As a writer I feel I should add something to the GPL storm that has brewed over the past couple of days in relation to a not so happen-chance meeting between Jane Wells and Chris Pearson. I will not mention anything said in the actual discussion because I was not there for that reason and they both should feel like they can discuss these things without effect outside of the purpose.

I have read Jane’s take on the discussion and whilst reasonably accurate I think she downplayed her role in this somewhat. Jane alluded to her reasoning for going to the conference in the first place to talk with Chris signifies reasonable cause.

Chris seems to have copped a fair bit of flack over his attitude in this discussion and as a witness, I think both of them have to take a little bit of the blame. Chris is a pretty passionate guy and I sense that sometimes he lets his emotions get the better of him, however I think Jane can also take some blame as some of the language she used (not colorful at all – but rather strong) and the delivery of those terms were perhaps baiting Chris just a little.

This may indeed end up in the courts, however I think cool heads should prevail. Matt and Chris (possibly a mediator as well) need to get together and sort it out once and for all. Unfortunately for Chris, legally he is going to have to move more than Matt, however I truly believe that Chris can continue his phenomenal success whilst abiding by the GPL.

I am sure there are a few holes in the GPL that could be explored but this will not result in anything but more costs on both sides and could do more damage than good to reputations.

Chris is right- he is a big fish, but we all swim in the same pond and we all benefit from each others work. I benefit from the work of the Woo Team, Press75 and Brian Gardner and we all benefit from the work of the tens of thousands of designers and developers across the community.