Things I would do to improve Facebook (or Tuenti, Sonico, StudiVZ, Orkut)

Warning. I just made the following feature wish list not knowing exactly which sites have what features. These are features that I wish I had, maybe I do and I don´t know. Also where I say Facebook, you can change that for the social network of your choice. In Spain for example Tuenti beats Facebook among young people.

Facebook should allow for the gifting of pictures. It is not good enough to post pictures and allow friends to tag themselves. Imagine two friends who fight, or a break up, then when the angry party deletes the pictures the person who appears in the pictures loses them. Facebook should allow a copy of the picture to be owned by the person who tags it so long as the owner agrees.

Facebook needs Skype. It should either team up with Skype or create its own Skype. It´s crazy that people can´t speak or video conference on Facebook that should be a core app.

Facebook´s email sucks. Facebook should team up with Gmail or create a good email system. It is getting better but it is not good enough.

Facebook should open up more. Twitter is where it is because it is so open. Facebook needs better APIs.

Facebook should allow you to import OPML files and include RSS in your news feed. Why keep the personal news feeds always separate from the real news feeds.

Facebook should learn from Apple when it gets to create lists. I want fast tools to create lists. All my friends whose language is Spanish, done. All my friends who live in Paris, done. All my friends who are married, done.

Facebook because it is done in USA which is the country which probably has the most inter generational tension, it ignores the possibility of parental relationships. It focuses on dating asking people if they are single or not or many questions about what relationships they have but it ignores parenting. In Spain for example Facebook rules in the over 30 crowd and Tuenti in the under 30 crowd. It would make sense if you could not only say what kind of relationship you have but if you are a parent or not and how many kids you have, their names, etc. There are an enormous amount of actitivities in which a lot of money is spent that involve children. Little children, like my 2 year old Leo, can´t be on Facebook themselves. But if I told Facebook that Leo exists I would get ads and activities proposed for him.

Facebook should allow people to wear a mask for certain approved activities. No I don´t mean a mask to have Facebook sex. I mean a mask to join groups that you may not want to openly join. For example, my father is an alcoholic group, cocaine users group, or any groups that deal with diseases, mental illness or any subject where anonymity helps.

Facebook should allow you to store files a la dropbox so you can have them in many computers and instantly share them with your friends.

Facebook would make a killing if it focused on travel. Facebook needs the social travel agency. Currently travel web sites are not prepared to deal with a travel leader who books a trip for 10 friends but each friend then pays separately for the airfare and the hotel. This could be an app. Currently when my older kids travel I end up being the banker of their EasyJet flights until their friends pay me. It would be great if they could say, weekend in Ibiza and for the next 2 hours the airlines/hotels, hold the bookings and each one pays with their own credit cards but they seat together and go to the same hotels.

Facebook has an incredible opportunity in search but for that it has to copy Twitter. When you tweet whatever you say is public unless you make it private. When you are in Facebook whatever you say is private. If Facebook was like Twitter the value of Facebook as a search engine would be enormous.