Robert Scoble

Facebook has a deeper problem than just Vine/Twitter. Kudos to Instagram on adding videos and a neat steadicam feature, but in this photo you can see the problem Facebook has: it's starting to look ugly compared to Google+ and Flipboard, amongst others.

Here's two of my screens. One with Google+. One with Facebook. Google+ is just getting better and better. Photos, on Google+, are stunning, when compared to the same photo uploaded to Facebook (because Google+ can deal with higher resolutions, and automatically increases the quality).

Another problem? I have the new Facebook design of newsfeed. But most people in my life still have the old design. The old design looks even uglier than my feed.

If there's a danger at Facebook it's the assumption that Facebook has us all locked in and we aren't going to go elsewhere. Well, Google+ used to be a ghost town. It no longer is. So SOMEONE moved over there (in just the past minute 84 posts flowed into my screen from 5,000 friends over there).

This focus on design at Google is showing up in mobile, too.

Is this a problem for Facebook? Not today, I agree. But long term? These trends are troubling. If Google takes back the high-value users then that's very troubling to Facebook. Already kids have moved a lot of their online behaviors away from Facebook and to things like all the chat/messaging apps and Vine (which beat Facebook by many months).

I believe this stuff is already affecting Facebook's stock price. Why? Investors can see that Facebook is feeling old and tired and isn't seeming to be that innovative.

If I were an exec at Facebook, like Sheryl Sandberg, I would be VERY troubled by all this. It's not enough to have a hacker culture anymore. You have to have a design culture, too. It's amazing that Google is getting the upper hand at that.

I'm watching the Facebook news event, video Instagram. You can watch here too.

A friend who works in PR says I've gotten $200,000 worth of PR simply because I have Google Glasses. I told him "yeah, and I paid for the right to give Google some PR." Oh, wait, who is the smart one here? Hint: it isn't me. ;-)

I still remember the first day I met Aaron Levie, CEO of Box.net. I thought "this guy is gonna get fired fast." Why? He was a goofball. Still is.

Last year I interviewed him in front of UC Berkeley Cal business students (another school that wouldn't let me in) and the conversation was one of my favorites. They finally got the video up, so the rest of you can share it.

I'll be back at the >play Digital Media Conference this year doing another fun interview.

The production quality on this isn't that great, but the conversation sure is.