Facebook让网络交友贬值?

Friendster、MySpace和Facebook等社交网站五年前突然冒出来之前，交友还没有被用作动词。
Friending wasn't used as a verb until about five years ago, when social networks such as Friendster, MySpace and Facebook burst onto the scene.
　　
突然之间，我们的朋友就升级成了听众。如果说写博客感觉像是对着虚无吼叫，那么在社交网站上发言感觉更像是在酒吧和一群朋友亲密交谈。
Suddenly, our friends were something even better - an audience. If blogging felt like shouting into the void, posting updates on a social network felt more like an intimate conversation among friends at a pub.
　　
不可避免地，随着我们的好友列表扩大到熟人、朋友的朋友以及七年级时坐在我们后面的那个女生，网络友谊就开始贬值了。
Inevitably, as our list of friends grew to encompass acquaintances, friends of friends and the girl who sat behind us in seventh-grade home room, online friendships became devalued.
　　
骤然间，我们对点头之交的生活的了解程度已经与密友无异──他们晚饭吃了什么、他们怎么看待老虎伍兹等等。
Suddenly, we knew as much about the lives of our distant acquaintances as we did about the lives of our intimates - what they'd had for dinner, how they felt about Tiger Woods and so on.
　　
Twitter的出现带来了一个解决方案：没有朋友，只有关注者。这种单向关系更容易管理──不必烦心地决定是否让前男友看到自己的相册，不必为谁可能看到你的工作和联络信息而焦虑。
Enter Twitter with a solution: no friends, just followers. These one-way relationships were easier to manage - no more annoying decisions about whether to give your ex-boyfriend access to your photos, no more fussing over who could see your employment and contact information.
　　
此外，Twitter的发言很容易通过网络进行搜索，这迫使用户对发言内容三思。亲密的交谈变成了才艺展示，成为在不超过140字符内证明自己智力才能的挑战。
Twitter's updates were also easily searchable on the Web, forcing users to be some what thoughtful about their posts. The intimate conversation became a talent show, a challenge to prove your intellectual prowess in 140 characters or less.
　　
这个秋天，Twitter将其人气转化成了收入，与谷歌和微软签署了利润丰厚的协议，允许谷歌和微软必应搜索引擎搜索他们的用户发言。
This fall, Twitter turned its popularity into dollars, inking lucrative deals to allow its users' tweets to be broadcast via search algorithms on Google and Bing.
　　
很快地，Facebook也效仿签署了类似协议，向谷歌和必应透露部分即时数据。（这令我们想到，虽然是全球第五大最受欢迎网站，但Facebook几乎没有盈利。）Facebook发言人施尼特说，这些协议不包括金钱交易，但可能存在价值交换。
Soon, Facebook followed suit with deals to distribute certain real-time data to Google and Bing. (Recall that despite being the fifth most popular Web site in the world, Facebook is barely profitable.) Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt says no money changed hands in the deals but says there was 'probably an exchange of value.'
　　
需要注意一点：Facebook只是将不存在的东西交换给了谷歌和微软。
Just one catch: Facebook had just 'exchanged' to Google and Microsoft something that didn't exist.
　　
绝大多数Facebook用户都只允许好友看到自己的更新内容，他们不想让这些内容出现在公开搜索结果中。（实际上，很多人根本不让他们的Facebook资料出现在搜索结果中。）
The vast majority of Facebook users restrict updates to their friends, and do not expect those updates to appear in public search results. (In fact, many people restrict their Facebook profile from appearing at all in search results).
　　
因此，Facebook没有多少内容可以出现在谷歌和必应的即时搜索结果中。本月早些时候谷歌推出即时信息搜索时，搜索结果基本上都是Twitter上的发言。
So Facebook had little content to provide to Google's and Bing's real-time search results. When Google's real-time search launched earlier this month, its results were primarily filled with Twitter updates.