From Macworld, quoting Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:

People like to talk about war [between tech companies]. There are a lot of ways in which the companies work together. There are real competitions in there, but I don’t think this is going to be the type of situation where there’s one company that wins all the stuff.

Google in some ways is more competitive and is certainly trying to build their own little version of Facebook.

Pretty clear Zuckerberg’s trying to disparage Google+, but he’s missing the point. Many people use Facebook now purely out of habit, not because they enjoy doing so; in fact, quite a few people I know absolutely despise Facebook and they only stick around because their friends are doing the same.

Facebook might be secure in that. It might think that social bonds are enough, and laugh in the face of competition from the likes of Twitter and Google+. I’d just like to remind them that MySpace and Friends Reunited thought precisely the same thing, but, abruptly, lots of people fled when they became bloated and rudderless, which is precisely what’s happening to Facebook today.

Zuckerberg has recently spoken about his mentoring from Steve Jobs. Perhaps he should take a leaf out of Jobs’s book, examine Facebook, and figure out how to make it beautiful and simple, rather than a mess of information fighting for users’ attention. Because sooner or later, there’s a good chance it’ll be too late.