Is Facebook threatening Silicon Valley? Farhad Manjoo outlines the case against:

• Silicon Valley used to be about innovations and making new things. Google made its name in search and is now trying out driverless cars. Facebook is just a social network.
• The brightest engineers at Facebook are trying to figure out how to get people to click on ads rather than deliver new visions and products.

But Manjoo argues quite convincingly that these fears are unfounded noting that:

• Facebook has helped Silicon Valley. People can now comment on websites using their Facebook accounts rather than having to go through the tedious process of creating different accounts for different sites.
• Facebook has also meant a transfer of wealth from Wall Street to Silicon Valley through its IPO.
• Connecting people – the very core of Facebook – is an innovative and useful tool in and of itself.

To read more about the case for and against Facebook, why it’s not a problem that Facebook is perceived by many as a waste of time, what porn can tell us about Facebook, why it has become essential to startups, why even a potential tech bubble would not be a case against Facebook, and see and try out some new apps that make use of Facebook click here.

Source: Slate