Is FaceBook the new global connector, or is it dying?

In this article the author posits that at 500 million users,and Zuckerburg cashing out to Goldman Sachs, the end must be near.This article suggests that FB is merely a fad and not a fundamental change in the way we communicate
Well that opinion is more of a whisper in a hurricane than a popular notion.
First, the fact that FB is in fact reaching our to corporate investors, there is no evidence to suggest that Zuckerburg plans to take the money and run.

I have seen others write in blogs and discussion threads on linkedin of their annoyance with privacy issues related to FaceBook. Of course when one really thinks about it, privacy is really an individual strategy. If there are things you want to keep private, simply do not post it anywhere on the internet. There is no real presumption of privacy on the Internet. Once the information is out there, any persistent individual can learn these things about you regardless of your privacy settings on FB.

FB now officially has 550 million users...adding the equivalent of the entire MySpace user base over the last several months. Some sources say FB will reach 800 million users by the end of 2012. With figures like this, it is hard to give credibility to the idea that FB has reached product maturity and will start declining as a result.

The most overwhelming evidence to date however of FB's strength in connecting people around the world comes with the recent revolution in Egypt. See http://bit.ly/ffY3RZ as just one writer's opinion. But the idea that the February 25th revolution was started on FB is, for lack of a better term, revolutionary.

Up until recently FB was entirely a social network with exceptional facility in connecting old friends who had lost touch. It also provided a forum for individuals to freely express their thoughts, likes and dislikes not to mention what they had for dinner.

But in Egypt it played an entirely different role. FB was one of the many catalysts in the revolution. Protestors posted 20 different protest locations on their FaceBook pages--knowing they were being monitored by the police. However a 21st protest was arranged through a secret FB page that the police were unaware of. By catching them off guard, the protesters were able to get a foothold in Tahrir Square they might not otherwise have achieved. Protectors continued to update each other with FB and Twitter throughout the 18 day protest.

Now this is a use for FB that Zuckerburg/the Twins most likely never anticipated. Using social networks as a catalyst for social upheaval is just another expansion of the ever-growing, ever-metamorphosing world of social media. What we have today is most likely simply an inchoate form of what is to come.

So, are we witnessing the demise of FaceBook? I resoundingly state NO!