b-mc2.com
2013, might well be the end of the "Social Utility" model.
Disclosure: This is a rewrite of a post that generated some interest last week-end, but addressed some of the concerns people had about it.
Probably a good bet that something will come along that wipes up Facebook and parts of Google within the next 20 years, but just like betting it all on one horse, doesn't matter how good your insider knowledge if she breaks a leg in that one big race.
A non- proprietary distributed fault tolerant, respectful of each users sense of privacy, easy to implement, robust, fast, easily searched, resistant to corporate and governmental abuse, social protocol... seems like a good idea to me.
I have a LinkedIn and Twitter account, which are strictly used for professional purposes. No bitching, no moaning, very little swearing (if any). Separation of concerns. I think the fact that Facebook is a Social network would have given that away. I like the fact it is closed, I don't have followers and groups now allow me to target some of my posts. (The only thing FB is missing is Circles, that would allow me to truly separate out different groups of people).
a) it’s too easy to build: technologies or how easy something is to build plays no part in it's popularity, the end user really doesn't care and your average user doesn't know what that .php, .aspx or .js extension really actually means.
b) it has no (large scale) viable business model: It has a viable business model, possibly just not as large as the one the market has put on it, 2 different things in my opinion.
c) this is not what people want: clearly it is otherwise there wouldn't be a billion people using it. I want everything in one place, it's one of the reasons I visit HN, I don't want to go to several different specialist sites to keep up to date with my friends. It's also the same reason I don't use Google+, because I have 7 friends on there and even they hardly ever post anything. If I wanted somethinf very specialist then I would join a specialist forum. Only time I think this could be useful is when I am trying to meet new like minded people local to me - so I think your app nicely fills this gap.
I think your response to c) is somewhat over simplified, facebook is definitely not what I want but i still use it until what i actually want comes along and people start using that instead.