Tim Berners-Lee, the man to thank for inventing the worldwide web, has spoken out about social networks and the danger they pose to internet usage. Now you would think that Tim would advocate any platform that made it easier for people to interact with the internet - he once apologised for including the "unnecessary" forward slashes in web addresses at the birth of the web - but the father of the internet has recently announced that social networks are a "threat to the web". 

(Tim Berners-Lee: Inventor of the internet, social network sceptic and the man to blame for the forward slashes in web addresses.) 

Tim's beef is essentially about the way social network sites encourage the compartmentalising of data across the internet in a series of "walled garden" environments. As this practice becomes more widespread, he argues that this will lead to a fragmented web - a far cry from the "single universal information space" he originally envisaged. 

He also highlighted the habit of social network sites to solicit information from members, and then remove control over how that information is put to use. 

These comments come just a few weeks after Facebook Messages was announced by Mark Zuckerberg, a service which would unite Facebook members communications - text, email and direct messaging - into one place, which perfectly illustrates Tim's point about the silo of information. 

The actual need that Facebook Messages fulfils for its users is still debatable (personally I like getting SMS messages to my phone and emails to my inbox)- although no doubt for some people, Facebook will soon become their main platform for their web experiences. Assuming it hasn't already. I'm guessing Tim Berners-Lee wont be signing up.