Some good points, some odd ones (why would you really need a hierarchy of groups inside of other groups?), but the interface part is mostly wrong/exists already.
I just looked at it and I can't find an interface to re-organize my current list of friends in Lists.
Account->Edit Friends, each friend has "Edit Lists" next to them on hover
I also can't find a way to filter the messages only from people in a certain list
Click the arrow beside Most Recent on the News Feed, then you can filter by any list
Lists also have the same problem as groups, they are categories for people, meaning that one person can only belong in one List
One person can belong in as many lists as you want them to
And when posting a message on your wall, is there even an option for posting only to a certain list, as I can't see it.
Click the lock beside the share button -> Custom edit -> Specific People -> Type whatever lists you want
Yahoo cares about products that make revenue, which is why it is dropping things like delicious. I think Groupon would have had a different priority within the company.
I'm curious - do you have any data supporting this? I see it on HN based on anecdotal evidence (or none) all the time. It would obviously have different effects on different market segments, but I would love to see some analysis on this.
I'll provide my personal input, if a website requires a Facebook account to log in, I won't do it. I have the Facebook Apps platform turned off for a reason.
No, that's why I have my email visible to friends.
However, that doesn't mean I give them permission to easily mass import it through Facebook to whatever *Ville app is popular that day. If they allowed email export, my email is very quickly being hidden.
Why would being "the new cool kid" affect job satisfaction ratings by employees? Unless you're suggesting they are more satisfied due to the coolness of the idea of working there.
There're a whole bunch of benefits that you get from working at the "cool new kid":
1.) Everything you do automatically has an audience. People care about the software you write and use it in their daily lives.
2.) You get social cachet from working there. Say "I work for Google", and a bunch of people will say, "Oh, that must be nice. I wish I was smart enough to get in there." Outside of a few nerds who are too cool for FaceBook, saying "I work for FaceBook" gets the same reaction.
3.) Being in a younger, game-changing company gives you the chance to work on cooler, game-changing technologies. Many tech workers are attracted by hard problems; young, fast-growing companies tend to have lots of hard problems.
4.) When companies are younger, they've accumulated less legacy code and fewer bureaucratic procedures. If you ask a bunch of Googlers what they hate most about working for Google, I bet a large portion will say "legacy code". This is a maintenance tax that isn't fun at all, yet has to be dealt with whenever you build something on top of it. Being younger and smaller, FaceBook has less of this.
#2 is a fair point, but I think you have it reversed on #1 and #3. You are a cool company _because_ you're young, game changing and have an audience, not the other way around.
#4 is a property of most young companies regardless of their popularity.
Don't forget about the 'halo effect'. If a company is performing well, it tends to lead to better results in employee surveys, for no other reason than that.
I know this doesn't exactly explain why facebook does better in the surveys than google, but I think part of the reason facebookers feel more satisfied, is because they know they get paid more than googlers.
Just because the core business is stable, doesn't mean there aren't projects on the fringes that aren't interesting and unstable. Even Microsoft comes up with cool things from their R&D labs. Just because the company is stable doesn't mean there aren't interesting things going on.
I just looked at it and I can't find an interface to re-organize my current list of friends in Lists.
Account->Edit Friends, each friend has "Edit Lists" next to them on hover
I also can't find a way to filter the messages only from people in a certain list
Click the arrow beside Most Recent on the News Feed, then you can filter by any list
Lists also have the same problem as groups, they are categories for people, meaning that one person can only belong in one List
One person can belong in as many lists as you want them to
And when posting a message on your wall, is there even an option for posting only to a certain list, as I can't see it.
Click the lock beside the share button -> Custom edit -> Specific People -> Type whatever lists you want