They made a big deal of it at the time, but ever since Xbox added Facebook and Twitter to the features, it’s really fallen away.

I think Microsoft/Xbox didn’t think much beyond “Hey let’s put a Facebook and Twitter client on the Xbox 360″ and hoped it would work gangbusters.

I think that the Facebook client is actually the least important aspect of the setup.  I bet Microsoft’s analytics show that the FB client is used for browsing FB updates, pics and so on, but rarely if ever used to update or comment. If you don’t have the chatpad it’s a very frustrating experience- worse than an old non QWERTY phone.

Where I see opportunity with Facebook and Xbox  is not the way the client was implement- it’s actually very good in look and features, but rather the lack of a true Facebook Connect feature.

You can already tweet your Xbox activity, but I think that is not only lame but also likely to cost you followers.

What I want to see from Microsoft is a Facebook implementation with some smarts behind it. Why not set my status as “Playing XYZ on Xbox” when I start playing? Why not examine my Xbox playing habits and suggest games, tournaments, playing times (when my friends are online) and new Xbox live friends to me?

What about a landing page on the Xbox (after I sign in) with some FB/Twitter widgets? What about integration with a Microsoft Exchange (or an improved Hotmail) account with calendar and tasks etc?

Despite Facebook’s current woes with privacy, I’m in little doubt that it’s user base will remain strong and where we (the users) think there is a tangible benefit, we will give “private information”- such as when we playXbox  and what games we like.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 23rd, 2010 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.