It seemed to be one of those perennial topics last year (not least on this blog!) - what the point of Facebook is.

I get the impression now, however, that there seems to be a consensus growing that one of the things it is most useful for is for maintaining occasional contact with people you don’t see every day but would like to keep vaguely in touch with - which is in fact very similar to some of what I was saying last year.

This came home to me again when I was sending out Christmas cards - something I tend to use for a similar purpose.

And the extent to which it has taken does seem quite extraordinary - and apparently there are now more Londoners on it than people from any other city in the world!

I can see its ongoing appeal, however. One of the things it really seems to get right is its format - and if you doubt that, then just take a look at some of the alternatives, from myspace to bebo to perfspot, to see just how badly the rest of them miss that!