Facebook launched onto the scene as a new and exciting way to connect with your friends and meet others at your University.  Each college had their own subdomain and lots of care was taken to add in information about universities to help standardize profiles.  Over time, more useful features were added to the site and it continued to grow.  Then Facebook decided to also create communities for high schoolers.  A natural extension to be sure, and they assured their users that there would not be any overlap between the two networks.

That, of course, changed.  Facebook went on to support regions and companies and has since moved on to combine all of these into one giant network and removed many of the features (e.g. course listings) that made the original site a success.  They continued to innovate with great features such as "Beacon" and the "Mini-Feed" which altered the site in ways that many of the early users were displeased with.

The "New Facebook" is the next iteration of bad design, which makes information harder to find and turns everything into a giant feed.  The original value of Facebook, the simple ability to communicate and share with friends is hidden away amidst what a user rented from Blockbuster last week (or the like).

Of course, Facebook knows their product was finished a long time ago.  They just weren't interested in that product.  Each change either serves to bring in new users at the expense of existing ones or increase revenues at the expense of all users.  (This makes sense--what do they care if 1,000 people quit in disgust when they broke their promise about keeping the networks separate if they gain 10,000 more as a result?  Or if they lose 1,000 people but gain an additional $1/year on the remaining 10,000?*)

Facebook should be applauded as a wildly successful business built from the ground up by exploiting college students across the country.  Smartly done!

(Now, does anyone want to build a social networking site where college students can connect with their friends and meet others at their Universities?  It'd probably be a success!)

*These numbers are all too small and are for illustrative purposes only.