Robert X. Cringely's Prediction for Facebook

Here's a bit from a recent post by Robert X. Cringely pointing out that Facebooks "best before" date may have expired:

Facebook now claims more than 500 million members. Facebook is too big. Already we’re seeing Facebook defections by, well, me. And others, there are other people than me who are put-off by the simple fact that this social network is becoming as ubiquitous as bad breath in dogs.

LinkedIn, at only 80 million members, is already having success with its branding as the working professional’s Facebook. Well the real Facebook can’t allow that, can they?

So expect this year a Facebook fork with the social network offering premium services to get back all those high earners over at LinkedIn. We may see several Facebook channels in fact. How else can Zuckerberg appeal to those of us who, like Groucho Marx, “refuse to join any club that would have me as a member?”

“There’s no forking Facebook,” Zuckerberg will say. But he’ll be wrong.

I'm more than happy to see Social Networking 2.0 with a better vision for users. My general rule of thumb is that when everybody is yammering about how something has become ubiquitous and successful is just about the point when that thing is about to crash and burn.