A post by Business Insider said that “The Mark Zuckerberg Era is Over”. So while I AM an ardent fan of social networks – and Facebook’s marvellous contribution to this field always amazes me – I find it surprising that they said so, even as a news follower !

For starters – or as the dessert also – take the Graph Search into perspective. One gem of a product ! I can actually see Facebook becoming the to-go-to platform for searches in the near future because of this. For anyone who’s gone through the product launch videos or through the one where the Engineering team (along with Mark Zuckerberg) explains about the future of Graph Search and the vision with which it is made, that itself is proof enough about the innovation that the company’s coming up with !

Just imagine – you are making your graduation video & want all those photos that your friends have put up, all those which were taken in college. So while there would be 2 ways to do it – search on your own or ask your friends to give you (like I did ! :P ), you might want it to remain as a surprise to them also. So 2nd way ruled out. And this is how it would be if the task is just upon you :

• The “Era Before Mark Zuckerberg”
  Take out all your scrap books, photo albums, or just by chance you’ve all your friends’ photos, put them all together. Might take you days to collect them all – since you also don’t want them to know about it ! And might also take you a lot stalking around (in the worst case scenario that is ! :D :P ). Huge exercise – it might even force you to think whether you even WANT to make that video in the first place ! :/
• The “Era Of Mark Zuckerberg”
  I would call it the time since Facebook was opened to the world – till last year. Now since we have our friends on Facebook, we’ve jotted down our lives in the form of timelines, pretty much a lot of our task has been done. Facebook has given us our very own personal-diary-made-public + scrapbook + slam book +photo album ! So this is actually a very personalised collection of everybody’s story of their lives – individual struggles & achievements – along with the story of their lives spent with their friends & family. So you want to make a graduation video – see your photo stream. Not enough photos ?! Go to your friends’ photo streams – figure out the albums wherein you might find the college photos, pick up the ones you feel might look good. Now iterate the process for all your college friends. So if you’re one of those social bees in college – bless your souls ! You’ve a LOT of  stalking & searching to do ! (And you better not forget ANY of the ones you ever even talked to in college – because you might as well offend them ! )
• The “Era of Mark Zuckerberg” + Graph Search
  Yes the times to come still. But really exciting times ! Imagine that you just write one search string “Photos of my college friends taken in college” – and voila ! A whole stream of photos gets displayed. How much had you had to work for it !? I don’t think any more than picking up a Choco-Pie ! (Whoa ! That’s a lot of work but – given the amount of self-assurance of weight loss you need to give yourself :P)
  So save as save as – frame video & you’re done ! A really good surprise for your friends, isn’t it ?!

So while this was just a small example on how Graph Search could make your life a lot easier, it is just the tip of the iceberg – to say the least ! Connecting all people, connecting their events, connecting the moments in their lives which affected them, connecting all the visuals, connecting the amazing places unexplored, giving a platform for the unfound to be found – this is a boon !

And you say the era’s over ?! Blah ! I don’t think so. Also because given the way Facebook’s been constantly updating and coming up with new features on it’s site, and given the fact that innovation can never be ceased, I’m double sure that their era is not ending now – atleast not till there is another shift in the Web, say Web 4.0 !?

P.S.: If someone from Facebook does happen to read this – guys you need to make your feedback button more prominent and accessible ! I know that would be calling a LOT of daily spam – but I think you would also be inviting a lot appreciation & good ideas to improve the site. Social Network to work as your Product Development Team – yeah you get my point ! ;)