There is an Open Source Rival to Facebook: WordPress

Posted on by | 39 Replies

I always cringe when seeing people try to build an open source rival to Facebook. Projects like Diaspora gain publicity as a nice idea, but get little real traction.

However, I’ve come to believe that there is a potentially viable and very real open source rival to Facebook … WordPress.

That might sound silly at first, but hear me out:

Huge Size

WordPress runs nearly 17% of all websites and well over 20% of all English-language sites. About half of that number is self-hosted and the other half is hosted on WordPress.com, run by Automattic.

Connected Features

What might happen if all those WordPress sites were linked together into a network?

It’s not hard to imagine. Automattic  is adding more and more features to their JetPack plugin. Currently JetPack has over 1.6 million downloads and lots of hosting companies are installing it by default.

JetPack offers analytics, social sharing, WordPress-branded shortlinks and now a commenting service.  JetPack’s features are also on WordPress.com.

So, right now, it’s safe to say that JetPack’s features probably cover around 10% of the web. That’s adding the ~8% of the web which is on WordPress.com to those who installed JetPack on their self-hosted sites.

Identity Platform

To use JetPack, you need to create a WordPress.com account. So at the moment, around 10% of site owners on the web have a WordPress.com identity.

Now think about how many people have a Gravatar account, which is perhaps the central identity platform on the web for avatars and also owned by Automattic.

With the addition of comments to JetPack, it’s possible to see that number growing well beyond 10% in years to come.

The real opportunity from growth will come from more features such as comments which appeal to casual end-users rather than just site-owners and bloggers.

WordPress.com has already become a login option on many different websites. As it continues to grow, it could provide a central identity tool for the web that rivals Facebook, Google and OpenID.

Privacy Benefits

Of course, WordPress also has all of the benefits that projects like Diaspora claim when targeting Facebook:

  • You can use WordPress anonymously.
  • You control the source code.
  • You can easily export your site from WordPress.com and take your site with you.

Conclusion

Take this description of Diaspora from Wikipedia:

The Diaspora social network is constructed of a network of nodes, or pods, hosted by many different individuals and institutions. Each node operates a copy of the Diaspora software acting as a personal web server. Users of the network can create an account on any server of their choice, but can interact with other users on all other servers

Notice how easily that description now applies to the WordPress network?

The only difference is that WordPress actually could make it work and become a viable open source rival to Facebook.

  • Zaskoda

    Interesting point, but the WordPress infrastructure just isn’t there. WordPress isn’t a distributed system in the same nature that Diaspora is. However, I feel very strongly that a Facebook killer will not be a Web app.

    • http://twitter.com/ferodynamics ⚜PJ⚜

      Even if your phone had the CPU/battery power to run a server all day long in your pocket, that would be rather pointless and the bandwidth/range/reliability is severely limited. Of course packet radio message networks have been around for 30-40 years already. Basically, radio waves are limited…unless you want to cut down every tree on the planet, keep dreaming. Mobile phones are cute little devices but they won’t replace web servers in your lifetime.

  • Anthony Fox-Davies

    So where do I log in to stalk my “friends”?

    • http://steveburge.com/ steve

       With difficulty. Strike one up for WordPress :)

  • http://zenhostel.jp/ Zen Hostel

    it ironic that you are using Disqus for comments here and not Jetpack?

    • http://steveburge.com/ steve

      Give me time. They did just release the feature earlier today ;)

      • http://zenhostel.jp/ Zen Hostel

        i prefer Disqus myself, using it on 3 sites / blogs. One thing with “new” Disqus rolling out that I am hesitant about is “TOP COMMENTERS” which might lead to pointless comments to you blog by those that just want to be visible in “community”…

        • Mak D’Uniq

          automattic…buy disqus :-) .

          • http://zenhostel.jp/ Zen Hostel

            yikes, that’d have to be an acqui-hire. It’d be a clusterfuck merging Disqus into Intense Debate. In bringing up Intense Debate, THAT is what should be default for wordpress.com blogs for comments.
            Speaking of acquit-hires, it’s a bit outdated (on Intense Debate’s features page) to call Friendfeed retrieval a “neat feature”.

      • http://zenhostel.jp/ Zen Hostel

        Actually Steve… how come you mention Jetpack and not Intense Debate, especially that your blog is self-hosted?
        Or maybe a better question, why aren’t you using Intense Debate yourself?

        • http://steveburge.com/ steve

          Hi Zen Hostel. I suspect Jetpack comments may become a rival to Intense Debate and Disqus. I left ID out of this as they’re not really in the running for building a platform. Disqus maybe closer to Automattic in that regard with some of their recent moves.

      • http://zenhostel.jp/ Zen Hostel

        i remember a few points that irked me about the Intense Debate plugin….
        1. If a potential commenter is logged into wordpress.com, they aren’t given a choice to “post as” a different account.
        2. I do not use facebook. So if a potential commenter wants to use Facebook to make a comment, I believe Intense Debate require the blog to connect with some kind of key. Disqus has no such requirement, someone can use their Facebook acct to comment without the blog connecting to FB.

    • tecnogaming

      Who will win in the end? disqus or jetpack comments ?

  • http://benwerd.com/ Ben Werdmuller

    The DiSo project was trying to achieve pretty much exactly this. It’s still a very worthy goal.

    • milk

      Indeed. Where’s the talk of OStatus? Och, can’t post using OpenID here…

  • http://www.hyperborea.org/journal/ Kelson

    I’ve been thinking for a while that blogs in general already are a distributed social network.  Publishing? Check. Comments? Check.  Tagging? Pingbacks.  News feed? RSS readers.

    Get a consistent identity scheme and a decent feed reader and what’s missing?

    • http://steveburge.com/ steve

      Exactly, Kelson. And Automatttic potentially have the secret sauce to make it happen. With WordPress.com, Gravatar and a substantial say on WordPress.org, they have a rare opportunity to create a centralized platform.

  • iAmJasonPaul

    I’ve been saying this for awhile. It seems like the folks at Automattic may believe this too. I’ve never heard of any explicit talk on the subject but all the cool Jetpack features could be Automattic positioning for a social coup

    • http://steveburge.com/ steve

      Thanks Jason. I was wondering what the reaction from folks at Automattic would be to this post, but so far it seems to be very positive with retweets from Matt and others. At the very least its not an idea they’re running away from.

  • Revivo73

    A refreshing insight and it makes sense when you think how interactive the Blog sites have become. But as far as I know, WordPress requires some web server and a database software which makes it too complex for an average user to install on his/her computer.

    • me

      WordPress.com the consumer version of WordPress (You don’t need to install)

      • http://twitter.com/ferodynamics ⚜PJ⚜

        Exactly, WordPress.org folks could be nodes and WordPress.com (and other big players) could be super-nodes. The problem with Diaspora, you needed Ruby which is still fairly obscure compared to PHP.

  • Ano

    WordPress is not a social network. Period.

    • http://twitter.com/alledia Steve Burge

      True, but remember that we’re not talking about what WordPress is. We’re talking about what it could be.

    • http://twitter.com/ferodynamics ⚜PJ⚜

      It’s getting there. Have you seen the new Gravatar profile pages? I’m not saying Gravatar is the solution, but it’s a start.

      • http://steveburge.com/ steve

        Exactly, PJ. And if Automattic were to tie Gravatar and WordPress.com profiles more closely together … that’s a viable identity platform to go up against Facebook, Twitter and Google.

  • Jessie545

    It’s not a bad idea, but there’s one big thing missing: all my friends. Facebook has broad appeal with virtually everyone, from teenagers to grandparents, from people who use computers for nothing except email and Facebook to operating systems programmers. At least 90% of my friends have Facebook accounts.

    I know maybe 2 people who have WordPress blogs, and they’re both of a very specific profile: middle-aged old-Unix geeks. So even if WordPress could duplicate 100% of Facebook’s features before dinnertime tonight, I couldn’t really switch to that, because it doesn’t have any of my friends. I’d have more luck abandoning email in favor of Goo^H^H^HApache Wave.

    So yes, from some perspectives, a distributed blog-based social network would be great. In order to get traction, they’d need to (1) compete on features, (2) use documented protocols so non-Wordpress users can get in on it, (3) provide a migration path for Facebook users, and (4) do some good marketing so my parents can make an informed decision about the matter.

    I think the best bet for this kind of thing happening is to get some established company to back the effort. For example, get Apple (who has no social network of their own to speak of, but tried) to support some open protocols supporting Facebook-like features, and have WordPress implement the same protocols.

    • http://twitter.com/ferodynamics ⚜PJ⚜

      You need to get out more. WordPress is not just used by “Unix geeks” try a Twitter search for “blogger” and see what you get. Food bloggers, fashion bloggers, travel bloggers, frugal bloggers, mom bloggers, fitness bloggers, these people don’t know Unix.

  • http://twitter.com/ferodynamics ⚜PJ⚜

    I’ve been saying this on my blog for years now. All these WordPress blogs represent a ton of computing power. WordPress could also replace Twitter with a P2P network something like Fidonet. It’s just a matter of time ;-)

  • joe

    WordPress’s code has been written aiming to be a blogging platform. They would have to rewrite their entire code base in order to feature ‘advanced’ social capabilities. WordPress’s code was not meant to be social.

    joe from http://fitnessmotto.com

  • Beluga

    Why didn’t you talk about http://buddypress.org/ ?
    Automattic is behind it.

    • http://steveburge.com/ steve

      Agreed – that’s another useful card that Automattic has to play.

  • fjpoblam

    Great article. I somewhat agree. I have a blog or two (both .com, one fully anonymous, both domain-pointed). Thinking of transferring them to my websites and downloading code. What I see as strong current pros: yes, as you said, WP allows full anonymity. WP has a history, is robust, and is very easy to set up and use. Con at the moment: I don’t see a lot of ability to set up a multi-party “conversation” (the essence of “social”, I believe.)

  • http://www.iamronen.com iamronen

    I completely agree that many open-source alternative efforts are wasteful and not very likely to succeed. WordPress has the potential to be a Facebook alternative and in my opinion a moral obligation to do so but it’s greatest obstacle is UI. It seems to be taking baby-steps in the right direction though :)

    WordPress needs to choose a Facebook-like connectivity experience – just as it initiall chose Blogging and then CMS: http://iamronen.com/2010/05/designing-an-engine/

    Much of the Facebook-like connectivity can be achieved with existing RSS capabilities: http://ontekusuto.iamronen.com/2012/01/wallpress-a-wordpress-alternative-to-facebook/

    “Publishing content” needs to be moved to the front-end:
    http://ontekusuto.iamronen.com/2012/02/email-to-ian-stewart/

    Intense Debate seems to be dying and needs to be revived by transforming comments into another “post-type” that has special “RSS-bouncy” capabilities between blogs:
    http://www.odharma.com/2012/03/resuscitating-intense-debate/

  • http://twitter.com/joseph_arruda joseph arruda

    I think this is partially on the money. The overall ecosystem needs to have a method for making wordpress effectively “private” (basically make the same privacy settings FB has without the element of random resets by FB itself) and make sure that it has solid mobile presence, and then you can conquer a tough problem…the perception issue of a platform that is somewhat intrenched in one particular mindset from a consumer-standpoint, and expanding it into the one you think it might fit into.

  • iAmJasonPaul

    So I took the plunge, deinstalled Disqus and activated Jetpack comments (seems like it’s a one or the other situation). One thing I’ve noticed regarding Jetpack is that self-hosted sites don’t get all the social features that WordPress.com users do. For instance I wanted to reblog a post or simply write a post from the top Jetpack bar. Although I’ve got the option to do it with my ID I can’t connect this feature to reblog or post to my self-hosted blog. This would be kind of huge in effectively destroying Tumblr in one fell swoop overnight. And of course a huge step in this idyllic WordPress as social network. This kind of makes Jetpack feel poorly implemented, probably just a design issue to clarify the reasons for these missing connections. I think that’s a huge missing link in this speculation as to whether WordPress can be a social network to rule them all. Will they do it? Or would that cannibalize their WordPress.com business?

    • http://steveburge.com/ steve

      Hi Jason

      My suspicion is that the Automattic guys probably either:

      1) are slowplaying their hand and / or
      2) don’t know where this process is headed yet

      Maybe if we see a unified experience between WP.com and JetPack, that will be a sign that they’re headed in this direction.

  • tecnogaming

    Really, why DiSQUS, it’s very slow

  • Jorge Enrique Forero

    WordPress is a fabntastic platform, thanks for the article, very useful