Sore-cial network
Zuckie’s little project is undoubtedly, the biggest. Nine hundred million is a lot of people, and they all have someone they love on the ‘Network’. So we have friends, family, uncles, aunts and that guy from the party.
It’s not complicated, it’s easy and sometimes, even a need. So, what exactly did anger people in this perfect setting? New features!
First in line was the ‘Friendshake’ feature —primarily designed for mobile phones to let you know if there are friends nearby. Also known as ‘Find Friends Nearby’, the product (released earlier this week) was soon termed the ‘stalker app’, and for good reason too.
The feature, which is manually enabled on a phone via GPS — when you visit http://www.fb.com/ffn — allows you to see all those online nearby who have accessed the same page, thereby locating friends or possibles. This is more useful when you meet new friends as a group, and then add them without having to locate them through a mutual friend. Many claimed this was an invasion of privacy and that letting location slip will encourage ‘creepies’. You might end with a friendship bracelet or a half-eaten arm.
Facebook dismissed fears and said this was only a trial launch for ‘testing’ and not a formal release. Just like horse medicine!
The second blow was below the keyboard — making changes to one’s profile without permission or even an alert to account users, a trait that Facebook is soon becoming ‘famous’ for. The giant is forcefully shifting users over to a home-built email service from the personal one that users have logged in with and have displayed on their Facebook pages.
If a friend sends you an email it goes into the ‘messages’ folder within your Facebook page. The social networking site’s email service was launched about two years ago but then it just, um, made a deeper crater than Harmaan Baweja. However, it is absolutely possible to turn off the email service - phew!
Also, email changes apply only to those users with the Timeline layout. Much of the online anger was targeted at Facebook taking a ‘Big Brother stand and deciding what was ‘best’ for members. Online forums have discussed everything short of molotov cocktails and tech ‘g00r00s’ claim the move was an attempt to merge electronic methods of communication into one and increase page views/advertising sales. Numbers, numbers and more numbers.
But Facebook, did you really have to do it on the sly?
With family and friends talking how awesome that birthday party was, the social network is paradise for many. Do we really need email Zuckie? You had us a ‘poke’ Mark — just don’t do it the wrong way.
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