I’ve always thought that social networking sites will turn out to be like pubs: rising in popularity, going out of fashion and then being reinvented. On this basis, planning future development on the basis of Facebook’s inevitable rise does not seem prudent - strategically, this is an important issue - even before the Beacon fiasco and its envelope of fog. Eddie Mair’s Radio 4 interview on Saturday, which can be found as a Podcast here, makes interesting listening. Eddie talked about the tipping point from a perception of good to evil. From a reputation perspective, there’s certainly bad stuff coming out for Facebook right now - and more storm clouds on the horizon.

Following the classic BBC formula, Seamus McCauley forecast of impending implosion was juxtaposed with Johnny Chatterton’s more benign view. Seamus predicted the growth of sites like Kaioo, while Johnny thought that Facebook had some way to run. Neither view is wholly good news for Facebook, but then as As J.M. Keynes said: “in the long run, we are all dead”.