It is in every company’s interest to lock in its customers. Lotus did. Microsoft did. Adobe did. AOL did. Facebook does.
Eventually, people figure out how to export and exchange proprietary formats. Sometimes they invent a whole new format, and internationally standardize it. Sometimes they create programs to convert proprietary formats to existing standards. Sometimes, they start from scratch, reluctantly, determinately.
I don’t live in The States, so I haven’t experienced AOL’s iron grip. I can relate, however, because each of the Middle East countries has a dominant service provider, usually that which owns the copper. Facebook, on the other hand, isn’t tied to a region anymore, so you’re free to experience its iron grip, not matter what your location is.
Facebook’s biggest competitor isn’t another site with the same features. It isn’t better software. It isn’t the desktop. It’s the “export” button; just like Facebook’s most important feature is the “import” button.
Think of the web, of the Internet itself, as water. Proprietary platforms based on the web are ice cubes. They can, for a time, suspend themselves above the web at large. But over time, they only ever melt into the water. And maybe they make it better when they do.
— Anil Dash, Blackbird, Rainman, Facebook and the Watery Web
Thanks Anil.