It has been described as Ambition by Robert Scoble, an "impressive feat of innovating at scale" by Albert Wenger, and Dave Winer described it as Zuckerberg's megalomania. The word scary seems to have increased in usage worldwide just because of Facebook! The outcry against Facebook wanting to own our identities has been quite the chorus this week.
So on the one hand we think -- everyone is outraged so this will never work. But on the other hand we are back doing what we do and not changing our behavior. Just like Wall Street -- we don't trust those guys but we keep giving them our money. It is a similar psychology. We know the stock market is set up to benefit the insiders, but everyone thinks they are going to be the one person that defies the odds. We know that Facebook is making an intentional and targeted and well executed attempt at owning our identities, but all we can think about is getting some of that traffic.
Many people are pulling the fire alarms and no one is leaving the building! If you think I am overstating this, consider for a minute the idea of unwinding/shutting down your Facebook account. We are all thinking we will each be the one person that can get out before the crash. 400 million users -- let's just get a little of that traffic before we get out.
So before we just go back to what we were doing and stand by while Facebook gains even more momentum -- let's remember this is not an Open Social Graph -- it is Facebook's Social Grab.