Zuckerberg says Facebook wasted two years betting on HTML5

[Shawn Knight]

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was a featured guest during TechCrunch’s ongoing Disrupt conference in San Francisco. In his first public interview since the dreadful IPO back in May, the social network founder said the biggest mistake Facebook made was betting the house on HTML5. It’s a move he says cost the company two years of development time.

In hindsight, Zuckerberg points out that Facebook should have shifted their full mobile attention to native – that is, building dedicated apps for Android and iOS – instead of working on an HTML5 platform that never reached the quality level his team was after. He goes on to praise the recently-released updated iOS app and says an Android version will be released soon. When pressed further for a release date, he said it’ll be ready when it’s ready.

Throughout the course of the interview, Zuckerberg made a concerted effort to drive home the point that Facebook is now a mobile company. But even with the newfound focus on mobile, he squashed rumors that his social network is developing a branded smartphone despite several probing attempts from the interviewer. He said a Facebook phone just doesn’t make any sense from their perspective and instead, they were focusing on deeply integrating Facebook into as many devices as they could.

When asked about the IPO specifically, Zuckerberg did a good job of sidestepping the question, simply saying its performance thus far had been “disappointing” but they are committed to their shareholders and will do things to build value over the long term.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/50121-zuckerberg-says-facebook-wasted-two-years-betting-on-html5.html

 

[hitech0101]

And other people have wasted their lives spending time on facebook

 

[Scshadow]

So so so tired of facebook. Its almost inescapable these days. Very few web pages have their own commenting section, instead its all facebook integration. Facebook is annoying me to no end. When I want facebook, I'll open their website. I really hope people see it for what it is, trash.

 

[Arris]

To be honest, if they didn't get the HTML5 stuff to "the quality level his team was after" then that's their fault for either not researching the capabilities of HTML5 or their own developmental short comings. To be honest supporting one web application using HTML5 should be an easier task than supporting separate apps for different devices(only reason I'd do that is if the apps are being sold). Since modern smartphones can now easily display full websites instead of mobile equivalents I'd have gone down the HTML5 route myself. Sure with the apps they can put notifications on screen and all sorts of stuff like that but to be honest I don't really need notified of every little thing on facebook. I'm in same boat as Scshadow, when I want facebook, I'll open their website... not have my phone beeping all the time.

 

[Guest]

Hmm the facebook desktop site seems fine for me.
with a little help from chromes "adblock" extension, well...no ads is a plus!
but im very sick and tired of the pathetic people who make pages for a sad cause, simply to harvest "likes" for a tingly feeling inside.

 

[Ma_ga]

It's seems that apple put a boat full of money down his way.

 

[Adhmuz]

I'll hop on the dislike facebook train, and I think Arris nailed it on the head, it's their own lousy development team that just didn't truly understand HTML5, maybe time to hire some new developers and not your college friends eh Zucker? The facebook epidemic is so bad even as I type this here I see the "Subscribe to Techspot" with the facebook logo right there under it. I'm just sick and tired of people who rely on facebook to make all their decisions based off how many likes something has. Checking once a day, maybe twice is bad enough, now you get bombarded constantly on your mobile device... And people want this? I guess it's a disease or an addiction (though if ever someone told me they were addicted to facebook I would slap them in the face really hard)

 

[Guest]

HTML5 was not facebooks "major" mistake. It was the bloody awful Timeline. I still cant stand the dam thing. Also, lets be honest, every mobile update they have released has made mobile facebook worse.

 

[Mister_K]

HTML5 was not facebooks "major" mistake. It was the bloody awful Timeline. I still cant stand the dam thing. Also, lets be honest, every mobile update they have released has made mobile facebook worse.

Agreed the Timeline integration is terrible. I really do hope Facebook becomes rather more customizable by giving you ability to enable different modules and possibly few other customization options.

I guess ability to change backgrounds and colours wouldn't be good idea because Facebook would loose its unique, simplistic look and a lot of the profiles would look horrible ...

But as I said, ability to move around and manage modules would be great. Possibly add permissions, who can see what modules and options of that nature.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for being honest.

 

[BlueDrake]

I'm on the "I don't need Facebook" side. Honestly more things are requiring Facebook, or have a little "Like" or something. They don't want a "Dislike" button, because it would invite trolls. Also it would ruin their 'perfect' image, as being the supposed social giant. All I really use is Twitter for various things, if I'm curious what people think it's nice to read tweets.

I don't want to see everything cramming Facebook down my throat. I've gone so far as to block it loading, Like button and everything on pages. Never once made an account ever, yet I get spam emails saying this and that. Sure seems people want me on the hopeless service, but I want nothing to do with it honestly. It's all for gaining information about us really, even those hiring want to dig up any possible dirt.

There's nothing that will make me create an account. Twitter is about as far into the social media as it goes. Never jumped on MySpace or Facebook, what's the next "social" startup that's possibly to get our info? I don't want to see pointless information about others, and have these so called online 'friends' that I don't know period. Twitter feeds me all the news I want, while I do other tasks in life.

 

[ryanb2145]

And other people have wasted their lives spending time on facebook

You mean that anti-social network?

 

[Guest]

Agreed the Timeline integration is terrible. I really do hope Facebook becomes rather more customizable by giving you ability to enable different modules and possibly few other customization options.

Facebook use to be like that...well sort of. In 2007 let allowed you to have apps on your page, you could organize them how you wanted others to see them. You would move your friends section around. It was pretty nice and I miss that facebook very much.

 

[danhodge]

When I saw Google+ come out, I thought it would just be a refugee camp for old Facebookers. But I think the whole site, and especially its integration with all of Google's other web services (and possibility more for the future), is more of a Utopia - a better place for us all.

The only reason I still own a Facebook account is because noone else I know actually has Google+.

 

[cliffordcooley]

HTML5 was not facebooks "major" mistake. It was the bloody awful Timeline. I still cant stand the dam thing. Also, lets be honest, every mobile update they have released has made mobile facebook worse.

The day Timeline was forced upon me was the last day I logged into Facebook.

Edit:
Actually that was the day I deactivated my account. I only wish I could have deleted it instead.

 

[Karthikeyan]

And other people have wasted their lives spending time on facebook

You are absolutely correct......

 

[MarkHughes]

So so so tired of facebook. Its almost inescapable these days. Very few web pages have their own commenting section, instead its all facebook integration. Facebook is annoying me to no end. When I want facebook, I'll open their website. I really hope people see it for what it is, trash.

I only use it like an email client these days, I check to see if I have messages each day and that's it. I don't spend any time there, It has felt like it's in decline for some time to me and all the "f" buttons everywhere only serve to annoy.

 

[MarkHughes]

The Fake likes is the main reason I stopped using FB, How do I know they are fake ? easy, I got a "Like" message from a work colleague who I know for a fact did not click like as he was in prison at the time with absolutely no internet access.

 

[mojorisin23]

I was on Facebook once in the last year. I didnt recognize anything. there was this timeline thing with boxes strewn about. I couldnt even find the friends list. granted I'm over 25 and therefore "too old" to figure stuff out, but it was just terrbile. I will try back in another year...

 

[Gareis]

I can't even imagine what would happen if Facebook started producing phones.

 

[Jim$ter]

Lame excuse...but now that your not wasting time on HTML 5 we are going to see some exciting changes... RIGHT?

 

[Guest]

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