The future value of Facebook will depend upon how much its managers can monetarize the social interaction provided by the site. There are limits regarding how much the users of the site will tolerate advertising based on using the private information relating to their use. I suggest that this limit is rapidly being approached. Some kick-back can be expercted by all the web sites that are taking advantage of the small print of their privacy agereements.

Facebook acknowledges that it does not have the business smarts that Google has. By comparison, it is a one trick pony. Perhaps its new owners will take it to the next level: perhaps not. I think it is a much higer risk investment than most observers do based on projecting its current rate of growth.

However, I am biased because I have never understood the advertising industry. I cannot get past the fact that their intrusions are so irritating and dishonest that they arouse nothing but hatred in me for both the product and the medium. So my interest in Facebook has been declining in inverse proportion to its financial success.