When facebook insidiously attempted to influence a bunch of top media outlets to publish some slanderous articles on some of Google’s supposed privacy violations, it was the last straw for me. Luckily, a few bloggers have some professional ethic and didn’t buy into the ploy, instead exposing facebook (yet again) for underhanded tactics in the war for global web dominance.

Today, I deleted ALL the content from my personal facebook page with exception of a single cheeky profile image, which in facebook-like font and color scheme, reads “google me”. Imagine my surprise when later on this day I received in email an acceptance to a request I made more than half a year ago to join into the beta release of MYCUBE, a social networking site that is far more streamlined and overtly privacy-oriented than its blue and white cousin. Reading their charter is truly a fresh air experience compared to facebook’s privacy statement, which basically says, all your content are belong to us. Here’s a sampling from the 2nd paragraph of the MyCube charter:

Privacy is a fundamental human right. MyCube believes that your decision to use social media does not mean that you have consented to have your rights to privacy eroded or ignored and your personal information exploited. That is why MyCube assumes that you wish to be completely private unless you choose to share information with others. MyCube also commits that we will never share your information or content with any third party without your explicit consent and never for our commercial gain. All our members’ content will be stored securely and our access to it strictly controlled under the oversight and governance of the Data Trust

Of course, the only problem is that right now there are only a couple thousand users in the beta, which means my first MyCube “Contact” will likely be a stranger named Hakan Nordh from London, who I requested to connect with today. Furthermore, the whole operation is a bit Eurocentric, I think created by some Scandinavian guys living as expatriates in Singapore.

All that aside though, I have given the MyCube features and functions a good run-through and everything is really very intuitive and clean. The privacy settings are especially easy, in keeping with the spirit of their charter and privacy notice. The groups feature is way less complicated than facebook’s friend lists for instance. You can very easily add users to one or more groups then as you post, you can with simple check boxes, select the group(s) you want to view your content. It really almost couldn’t be easier. The site is fast, or at least as fast as facebook at submitting, updating, and refreshing. Perhaps that could change if they ever get a critical mass of users. I mean, let’s give facebook credit where it is due. Of a half a billion users, there are hundreds of millions of simultaneous users at any point in time. Probably no other single company, save Google, has as many simultaneous users. Compare that with maybe the hundred or so users on at once with MyCube and you will have a lot of reason to be in wait and see mode.

Another thing I really, really like about MyCube is that it doesn’t require or even encourage you to add a bunch of information about yourself. All they want for personal info is your name, country of origin, and your birth date. Sure, you can bet ads are in their future and maybe even some targeted strategies based on usage and content but I just don’t think it is going to be their main game. Their main focus beyond privacy and control seems to be allowing the user to monetize their content using a special e-currency, which is really a cutting edge strategy. Think about it. If you are an artist, video producer, publisher, musician, blogger, chef, or whatever, you will be able to charge access to your content and re-use the e-currency to access other commercial content. Down the line, you’ll even be able to cash out with real money. It is all in keeping with their mantra of you own your content and the right to benefit from it.

MyCube is just similar enough to facebook and just different enough in very good ways that it has a chance. Mainly, all it is missing is users. Rome wasn’t built in a day and I have to figure there are plenty of people on the waiting list given it took me 6 months to get in. These are positive indicators and I am encouraged. Right now, beta users aren’t given the capacity to invite friends. When they do, plan on getting an invite from me.