Starting now, you will be able to publish status updates not just to your 'friends' on Facebook, but to EVERYONE -- regardless of whether or not they are in your network. That means that your status updates can be visible to not only those in your social network, but those who aren't, and maybe even more importantly, Google, Bing, and every other search engine indexing Facebook pages and profiles.
Here's how the setting looks, courtesy of AllFacebook:
This is definitely a first step towards opening up a platform that has built its success upon giving its users full control over only letting certain people in. Perhaps Facebook is realizing that being ubiquitous means opening up even further than the Facebook Connect platform has allowed it to. Or maybe they are just feeling the Twitter heat. Either way, Facebook just got a little more public.
When Facebook launched their new 'Pages' product, they made brand pages look, feel, and act more like profiles. Now, profiles are acting more like Pages. If this is a step towards going the 'full monty', is this something that users will embrace -- or shun? Either way, this is something to pay attention to. I'm sure Facebook will be paying very close attention to it.
We all live in public now, apparently.
I'm going to leave you a comment as a reward for actually updating your blog ;)
Anecdotally, I don't see a whole lot of status updating from the new generation of FB users, who seem to be primarily female and over 30. They use it a lot for photos, game, wall posts, etc., but not a whole lot of status updating.
The first inkling they get that "Taking the kids to the dentist, he's so creepy" may wind up on Google, they may just abandon that feature. But that's assuming the word gets down to them: FB is notorious for not letting users know about that.
To wit: how many users, especially new ones, realize that they can adjust the settings so that only certain people see the photos they post? Or even know that they can create groups?
Posted by: Alan Wolk | June 25, 2009 at 09:46 AM
We only live in Public...if we choose to.
Posted by: Lori Shecter | June 26, 2009 at 07:17 PM
i know this is a week old post, but if a user chooses to post their status update to "everyone" does that mean i don't have a choice as to whether or not it comes up in my news feed? That can't be right.
Posted by: Michael Maurillo | July 02, 2009 at 04:02 PM
Facebook is copying from the Twitter playbook. It has undergone several new changes to its website to make it more appealing and functional. Facebook is maybe trying to copy from the success of Twitter. I am not sure if any of these moves really change the bottomline - Facebook is not making money.
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Posted by: d&d miniatures | November 21, 2009 at 07:40 AM