that point—what happens? Maybe the wife is an admin and the husband is not, so who was running the executable file when they launched? These sorts of things get really complicated,” Su says.
One new development that’s not helping maintain the magic is Mac’s new OSX Lion operating system update, which has ditched the Java integration that made installation in previous versions so seamless on Macs. That’s a big headache, obviously, since Su worked so much on making the setup and install process quick and easy. Losing Java means users will have to do some extra steps, and Facebook is still figuring out how to get that done.
“We are very likely going to go with either a native implementation on the installer, which is unfortunately not as integrated and smooth, but is made necessary by Lion. Or something like the app store—some other way to get the software down that is standard for the user,” Su says. “The decision’s not been made on that.”
When he announced video calling with Skype, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the fact that pairing with an external partner for such a big feature is precisely how Facebook wants to expand its offerings. Linking up with other companies that have specific expertise in things like video calling frees up Facebook to continue building and maintaining its platform. It’s certainly a savings in manpower—I’m guessing Su wouldn’t have been basically alone on the project if Facebook had built its own video calling service.
Su says Skype was the choice for two big reasons: reach and quality. Skype already is working with tons of users, an average of 145 million per month as of the fourth quarter in 2010. And Facebook was impressed by Skype’s video and audio quality, which was critical especially if you’re going to have to trim the thing down and lose some quality to work inside Facebook.
As for future uses, Su wouldn’t give details on any particular next step, but did say the “obvious” things like mobile and group video calling were on the horizon. It’s all part of a big-picture strategy for Facebook to make communication between users swift and seamless across a bunch of different types of communication—imagine connecting with a friend and having your message routed through text or video or voice to any device the person’s on at the time, in a fun and fast way.
“If you’re carrying your phone with you right now, as you are, with your laptop, as you are, and someone sends you a chat message–and you might even be on Facebook.com right now—what is the right set of things we should connect with you on? And how do we know that’s the right set?” Su asked, pointing to my array of devices on the conference-room table. “I think that may not be immediately obvious to people, but is a thing that, when we do solve that correctly, will feel magical to users.”
