[blizkreeg]

Couldn't agree more.

Personally, I would love to have something like a Yammer/Facebook that is invite-only and absolutely, completely private. In fact, it should not be searchable. You should not be searchable. And there's no getting around that. No one except the people I personally tell should know that I'm part of this network. The word 'clique' comes to mind when I think of what could beat Facebook at it's own game. In school, college, or in your job, you can only get into a certain clique or group if they personally invite you and deem you trustworthy and close enough to be part of the gang. On a network such as this, you could have different cliques - one for your family and relatives, one for very close friends, and one for your immediate family let's say. That's about it.

I often share things with a handful of my close friends via email. I don't put it on Facebook because I have a lot of just "acquaintances" that I don't want to share this stuff with.

I think a network where the concept of "adding a friend" doesn't exist, nor does the concept of "public" is probably what will take some fraction of people away from Facebook. If you mimic what happens in real life, you invite a whole bunch of friends and acquaintances to a Friday night house party, not to your family Thanksgiving dinner.