I find it interesting that at times, we as web professionals, get so involved in minute details of code, design and the usability of websites that we lose sight of the bigger picture. Often I think it would be nice to forget this detailed knowledge I have of the online space and be able to view the web as most others do, day to day.

It also amuses me that some technologies are dismissed simply because they go mainstream quickly, or are just mainstream at all. Alienation of an emerging technology or web 2.0 fad… but you often have to wonder just what keeps so many people returning again and again?

This post is not about Facebook suicide pacts or pissing on about how useless Twitter is. This is simply one of my Facebook stories.

In 1999 I travelled Europe for one year on my own. I arrived in Cork, Ireland and met an American guy named Brendan. We bonded over a few beers and ended up moving to the next town of Killarney where we continued to hike all day, drink Guinness all night. Rinse and repeat for the next 6 days.

We parted ways after Killarney, only to meet in the town of Galway for a final meeting in a pub before he was to head back to America and I was to push on to the mainland of Europe. I would safely say that Brendan and I clicked, and that we would be friends for life , even after this relatively small amount of time that we had known each other.

Almost 9 years later we had talked a few times on Hotmail, which I keep only for those friends I still know or hear from occasionally from that year in Europe. Hotmail is inconsistent at the best of times nowadays, with people migrating over to Gmail or just by chances your emails get binned by the useless Hotmail spam filters.

I have been on Facebook for less than a year, and I found Brendan on there somewhere along the way. We had brief contact, I followed his photos and wrote on his wall. Nothing too groundbreaking, but it was a connection.

Then Brendan mentioned he was coming to Sydney, which I noted after receiving a Facebook message. I replied back and told him my details to get in touch and almost instantly received a reply. Frequent messages bounced back and forth, before finalising plane times, pub locations and other important details.

Now this never happened with any of my Hotmail contacts from Europe, but Facebook has suddenly created an almost real time connection to many of these non-web contacts I have that would never respond to simple email.

This Sunday I will be sitting in a bar with this buddy from America (now living in Japan), that I met in Ireland almost 9 years ago. What’s really interesting is that I have been following his life to some extent for the last year via Facebook imagery, updates, wall writings and other absurd app-fuelled connections that make me feel like I know what his life has been about for the last year.

I know of his trips to Utsumi beach on the weekend and wonder about the Gajin parties in Tokyo… but there will still be lots of catching up to do over many pints on a Bondi patio.

This is my personal, social review of a web 2.0 ‘fad’. No technical audit, usability research or professional critique of interface design. Minor annoyances aside (vampire bite anyone?) what is your social, web 2.0 app doing for you?

What’s your story?