Some random thoughts after reading @timbray and @pluralistic:
Imagine that setting up an account and connect to any social network was so easy that there would be _millions_ of interconnected social networks.
Well, we don't need to imagine that, that's how the web or the email were built. Interoperability is inexistent between major platforms by design. Sure, it is not a trivial problem, but setting up a social account should be as ordinary as setting up a blog or an email account.
@urixturing @timbray @pluralistic On Facebook's lack of interoperability by design (1/2):
Way back in 2008, Facebook announced that Facebook chat would be interoperable with Jabber/XMPP, a widely-used open messaging protocol.
The feature was added in 2010[1]. Google Talk used the same protocol.
Facebook cynically used XMPP support to draw in millions of XMPP users before dropping support in 2014.
[1] https://techcrunch.com/2010/02/10/facebook-chat-launches-xmpp-support/
@strangequark @urixturing @timbray @pluralistic For the record, while Google Talk actually was a federated XMPP service (which later pulled the rug out and stopped federating), Facebook Chat never was one. You could only log into it using an XMPP client, but the network was completely separate and nothing was interoperable there aside of that bridge.
