[charlie_joslin]

I personally think that Microsoft should either buy or merge with Facebook, wipe the slate clean, redesign it Metro UI style, and charge for it. No ads, just a better overall service. I wouldn't hate Facebook so much if it were actually fun to use.

[youssefsarhan]

Not sure about a Microsoft involvement.

Either way, I feel they will always have a conflicted product vision so long as their users and customers are separate entities. Imagine a feature that's brilliant for the user, but terrible for advertisers? Well, hard luck, it's off limits. It's strange that one party is using and another is paying. It profoundly limits the scope of the product.

[charlie_joslin]

Well if any major tech company would go after them it would be Microsoft. Facebook's integration in Bing, Microsoft buying Skype then integrating it with Facebook, etc.

I agree though. The first thing to do would be to get rid of the advertisers and charge for it.

[charlie_joslin]

Something similar to this would be nice. http://www.theverge.com/2012/3/30/2883925/an-alternate-windo...

[epikur]

Microsoft Research has so.cl (that's the URL), which integrates with Facebook and adds some "social search" and video chat features. It's not competing, just experimenting with different functionality.

[charlie_joslin]

Well Microsoft-Facebook makes sense from a competitive standpoint with Apple-Twitter.