I think infinite scrolling works best for uses cases where you don't typically open links after you've scrolled down. In Facebook's case, most of the interaction is ajax (Like, Commenting, etc.) so you don't lose the position.
For me Facebook works pretty well. I like to keep quickly scrolling down (using trackpad inertial scrolling) until I've skimmed over everything new in the feed. Forcing me to move and pinpoint the cursor to click a "Next page" link would certainly add friction to that.
Google's search results, OTOH, are a completely different use case, where you want to have full control to the paginated browsing, constantly navigating back and forth.
Perhaps this involves a distinction between "lean back" and "lean forward" use cases. Leaning back, it's nice to just keep on scrolling with simple finger swipes.
For me Facebook works pretty well. I like to keep quickly scrolling down (using trackpad inertial scrolling) until I've skimmed over everything new in the feed. Forcing me to move and pinpoint the cursor to click a "Next page" link would certainly add friction to that.
Google's search results, OTOH, are a completely different use case, where you want to have full control to the paginated browsing, constantly navigating back and forth.
Perhaps this involves a distinction between "lean back" and "lean forward" use cases. Leaning back, it's nice to just keep on scrolling with simple finger swipes.