Will Facebook slip into the past tense too?

Right now, there is a collective presumption that Facebook is forever.

The same sentiment existed at various times in the past for many other Internet applications and services – many of which we now refer to in the past tense.

Will Facebook be any different?

And there were things that pre-dated the Internet that were thought of in the same “everlasting” terms – things that were superceded by the Internet itself, like Genie, Compuserve, Prodigy, and the pre-Internet “America Online” service. Some, like AOL, evolved; others didn’t.

Is Facebook really the last “next big thing” as a lot of people seem to suggest – or is it just another “next big thing” in a long line of “next big things” to be replaced by the next “next big thing”?