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The author argues that the 'interest graph' is more commercial than the 'real friends graph'. True. However its clear to me that the 'real friends graph' is much more useful to real people. Facebook's 'real friends graph' is a useful tool, helping me keep track of people in my life. The 'interest graph' is a much less useful thing.

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I don't think the authors would argue with you that a friends graph is more useful to real people. I think the theory is that an "interest graph" is more commercially valuable. If you follow Apple, you're very targetable. If you're friends with your college buddies, you are not.

I think Facebook realizes this-- which is why you're seeing them offering "like" buttons, share buttons, embeddable commenting functionality, etc. I honestly think Facebook is doing as good a job as Twitter at capturing interesting nowadays... And for a broader audience.

Yes I agree. My point is that just being a intrest graph service limits the service to the early adopter tech crowd. Facebook are in a much stronger position as (normal) people are there already with their friends, and they can grab the interest graph as well.

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