"I too struggle with Facebook. I just can't help thinking that it is a glorified reincarnation of Friends Reunited. Those from the UK will remember this as one of the first social networking sites from back in the heady days of the dot.com boom. Using public databases of education establishments, Friends Reunited was able to help re-connect old school friends long before Mark Zuckerberg had even thought of Facebook.

"Friends Reunited was hugely popular in the UK, but did it work as a business? Not really. When Friends Reunited tried to charge it's members for putting them in touch with each other, as the CNN correspondent from your article yesterday suggests, people just moved on to new trendier venues.

"The business case for Facebook, aside from advertising, branded mobile phones and talk of virtual currency is all about Facebook 'owning' its members identities. A scary thought in itself, especially given Facebook's poor reputation on privacy. Who would want a Facebook credit card or bank account? Not me for sure, but I wouldn't bet against the idea gaining traction amongst the half billion members which Facebook provides for, especially with Goldman Sachs working behind the scenes.

"Like Paypal before them, Facebook could very easily sneak in under the radar with a number of monetizing initiatives and sooner or later it no doubt will.

"In terms of usefulness, the real story about the social graph must surely be Twitter.com

"Rather than being just the latest soap box from where celebrities can update their fans on what they had for breakfast, Twitter is not really a venue but a new medium in itself. And because of Twitter's open approach to it's technology, it has been possible for ventures such as StockTwits.com to aggregate tweets into streams of useful information on a given subject, for example #grains, #SPX' or #aapl.

"In my opinion Twitter is still somewhat misunderstood. Later today for example, I will tune in to twitter for live feedback on the US Crop Report. I'm not a grains expert and I don't have a Bloomberg terminal, but I already know that through twitter I'll be able to get almost instant commentary, feedback and opinion from people who know more about the subject than I.

"As a paid up subscriber I would love to be able to follow Fullermoney on Twitter. I do not believe this would devalue my subscription, quite the contrary in fact. And can it go without saying that being able to follow your personal trades, in real-time, would be of great interest to myself and I am sure many Fullermoney subscribers not to mention many new potential followers of your service?"

David Fuller's view Thanks for this information and others may also be interested in StockTwits.com, which might have been overlooked with a name which could have come from Private Eye or The Onion.

Regarding your last paragraph, I try to telegraph my personal investments and trades in advance by sharing my thinking. Consequently thematic changes in my portfolio seldom come as a surprise to subscribers who are regular readers of Comment of the Day and also listen to the Audios.

Personal investments and trades are an indication of analytical acumen but Fullermoney is about Empowerment, not tips. And while it is flattering to have subscribers ask for more, Mrs Fuller is already commenting on my "Vampire" schedule - a bad habit I acquired during the recent Ashes series.