The problem with on Facebook it requires users to do the hard work. That is because, they encourage users to “deactivate” their account and the only way to be certain that your account along with all the data is removed from Facebook is to delete every single picture, comment and personal information from your profile and save the changes, and then email their customer service (who unlike Twitter actually get back to you) and ask for your account to be removed – then just in case they have disabled it, wait a couple of days and try to login, if a message pops up offering to reactive your account then you should email them again – if the message doesn’t pop up your Facebook account has been successfully removed.

However, I believe that the way Facebook are approaching user deletion is wrong, they should be able to delete effortlessly.

Update: Facebook have since changed the way the delete your account.

Let me explain from a generic perspective.

I believe that any company requires clear cut signals to tell them if they’re going in the right direction. Which is why I believe a company along with trying to generate revenue from its users (or even trying to get them to pay for services/features) needs to get the things which users don’t like about their product or service so they can learn faster.

Which means that the company is going to acquire more data and we all know what data means value. The value in this sense is to the company because, these failures (which is essentially what they are since users don’t like X or Y about their service) can teach them something about the market and can be corrected by the company either by terminating the particular feature, improving it etc.

This then creates a continuous loop as there is more data which facilitates the company to learn more about the market so they can make better decisions which of course leads to a better product or service. As a result the option to allow quitting on your service/product is important as it collects data and if you don’t allow quitting on your product or service then you are only going to be collecting positive data and ignoring negative data or to put a value on it 50% of the data.

Remember by collecting only half of the data then you’ll only be able to paint half the picture. Personally I’d rather be able to paint the full picture so I can assess the situation and ensure my company is heading in the right direction which is why allowing effortless quitting of your service is vital as you can collect data which facilitates you to meet the needs of the market and allows you to develop products which the market require which generates more revenue in the long-run.

2 Short.Url (2su.de), 2Zeus, 3.ly, 9mp, a.gd, abbr, arm.in, a.nf, bit.ly, bloat.me, Buk.me, BurnURL, Chilp.it, cli.gs, clk.my, Clop.in, DiggBar, ff.im, Fly2.ws, fon.gs, Foxy URL, FWD4.me, g4.ms, gl.am, Good.ly, Gurl.es, hex.io, Hurl.no, idek.net, irt.me, is.gd, J2j.de, kissa.be!, Kisa.Ch, kl.am, krz.ch, Kore.us, Kots.Nu, ktzros, Lincr, LinksPreadeR (l.pr), LinxFix, LNK.by, lt.tl, lurl.no, Metamark (xrl.us), migre.me, micURL, min2me, MinURL, Moourl, MyURL.in, nd url, Pendek.in, Pic.gd, PiURL, Plurl, pnt.me, POPrl, pt2.me, Puke.It, qr.cx, Qurl, qux.in, r.im, RDE.me, redir.ec, RIMS, rnk.me, RubyURL, Safe.mn, Sai.ly, SFU.ca, shorl, Short.ie, short.to, shortn.me, Shrtn, Shw.me, Smallr.net, SMFU, Snipie, SnipURL (sn.im), snkr.me, song.ly, srnk.net, StumbleUpon (su.pr), TightURL, TimesURL, tini.us, Tiny.cc, TinyURL, to.ly, to.vg, tr.im, tra.kz, tsort.us, tweet.me, Tweetburner (twurl.nl), Twip.us, Twirl.at, twtr.us (tw6.us), u.nu, UiopMe, ur.ly, URL.AG, URL.ie, URL (un)faker, urlBorg, urlShort (ooqx.com), urlShort (u.mavrev.com), urlzen, Virl, vl.am, VTC, XORTR (xrt.me), XR.com, xrl.in, X.vu, xxsurl.deZ.PE, Zi.pe, ZipMyURL, ZZ.GD

…and those are only the one’s which I have recently interacted with.

I hate the fact that I am forced to use them – with the main ones that I am forced to use being ff.im and bit.ly although ff.im links are only generated when sending FriendFeed data to Twitter so that doesn’t really bother me.

For example, if I go to Twitter and post a link it is automatically converted to a bit.ly link don’t get me wrong bit.ly is a really cool service especially the  “+” feature and the same happens when I click on a link from Twitter it is generally a bit.ly link (unless someone created it manually or used a service such as awe.sm like Techcrunch do) which means that we are basically adding an extra layer to the system.

However this isn’t the major problem with URL Shorteners.

Let me explain.

The Internet was designed in a way which meant that there wasn’t a single point of failure which could easily break large parts of the web. URL shorteners can cause this single point of failure because, a regular hyperlink implicates a browser, its DNS resolver and the publisher’s DNS server and website whilst a URL shortener adds an additional layer which acts like a third DNS resolver and if a problem occurs with the URL shortener then you can’t access the ‘real’ hyperlink which causes a single point of failure.

Additionally this extra layer means that it’s going to take time to get you to the link due to additional DNS lookups and server hits.

Expanding on this single point of failure theme, URL shorteners become middlemen sitting between the link and its original destination. This is one of my biggest concerns which I have previously expressed and which has been highlighted recently by the media with the fact that Tr.im decided it was going to close down although it has since decided to go “open-source” and remain open as the third-party could decide that a link which you shorten violates its Terms Of Service and delete it. Moreover, the URL shortener which is now the key to getting to the original link could experience downtime,  accidentally erase the database, forget to renew its domain, get hacked, disappear or change the way its url shortener works which means instead of sending you directly to the original link it sends you to a page on their site which contains the original link on.

Consequently, there is the usability aspect of using a URL Shortener which is highlighted on Twitter.com itself as you can’t tell where the link will take you (although you can tell on Twitter Search). However, FriendFeed does expand the url which helps to prevent phishing but many sites are like Twitter and do not expand the shortened URL.