A BBC profile of Facebook's chief technology officer, Bret Taylor, asked several questions, including what he saw as the "next big thing" for the social network that revitalized the online gaming industry and created monster social gamer, Zynga.
If we had to guess, it's probably going to be orientated around media or news, because they are so social. When you watch a television show with your friend, it's such an engaging social activity.
We think that there's a next generation of startups that are developing social versions of these applications, where what Zynga is to gaming, they will be to media and news, and we're really excited about that.
(By the way, for grammar's sake, it's "oriented.")
I'm not sure how much Taylor understands about media and news -- television is a medium, but not necessarily news. It's also not clear how startups will be able to mix media and news -- especially when any application would require buying rights to interact with any television show. However, if the next big thing is news -- how could that be quantified on Facebook? Would it be a postcard of news that most of your friends read, complete with responses? Or would news give a special daily version to Facebook?
If Taylor's right, then innovation will be the key to making this pairing work.
