Facebook makes a mistake?
The ever popular Facebook has recently introduced two new features called "mini-feed" and "news feed" where you can track what all your friends are doing or whether they have modified their profiles. Before this change, one had to go to their friends page and check each of their friend's profiles individually to see what has changed. This feature will allow one to bypass that process and see what his or her friend has changed all in one page.At first, this sounds like a pretty good idea; however, there has been a lot of backlash from Facebook members on this feature. Many find it really annoying that it keeps track of everyone's movement (hey, not everyone is supposed to know you're online writing on your friend's profiles.. what happens if my future employer catches me on facebook just by looking at my feed.... etc.) Many groups have popped up protesting the feed and even comparing it to the clutter of Myspace.
What do I think of it? I have some mixed feelings on it. It is making Facebook lose its appeal for simplicity and functionality. I have an account on Myspace and browsing on Myspace is a nightmare. Facebook is approaching that limit as it tries to differentiate itself from other social networking websites by providing innovative features and content offered nowhere else. On the other hand, I can see the usefulness of this feature on a mobile phone instead of on the PC. On the PC, I like the idea of browsing to discover what's new on my friend's agenda without worry that my movement is being tracked. Now with the news feed, the novelty of browsing has disappeared.
I would like to note that Facebook is pretty good at coming up with features that are not offered on other social networking websites. Then again, Facebook started out as a closed network of elite Ivy League colleges and morphed to an ambitious online directory of students and coworkers. What's next? By retirement homes for the elderly?
*UPDATE*
Here are some interesting quotes from the groups protesting the Facebook Feeds:
"
You went a bit too far this time, facebook. Very few of us want everyone automatically knowing what we update. We want to feel just a LITTLE bit of privacy, even if it is facebook. News Feed is just too creepy, too stalker-esque, and a feature that has to go.
We demand that either the feature goes, or that we have an option to remove ourselves from the feature. Nothing people write on our walls, or what we write, or what we update goes up on the "News Feed." These are small demands of your users, but we are here to complain and protect our privacy.
I know it's odd to protest facebook through facebook, but this perhaps is the best way for them to get the message.
Until this feature is removed or changed to protect my privacy, I WILL NOT update my profile, and I hope you will too.
So join here, and you're part of the petition to remove the most undelightful feature to have ever hit facebook." -Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)
"Dear Mark,
We're all real glad that you've come up with some innovative "products" here on Facebook; however the majority of us couldn't care less. We all joined Facebook because it provided a communal space on the internet in a world of increasing privatization and stratification. We, the community, the ones who keep Facebook alive and bring you all that big advertising revenue, hate this news feed bullshit. Listen to the people Mark, and restore Facebook to what it once was!" -An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg
Other interesting quotes:
It's ironic that most of the people who enjoy the new changes, including the developers of them, are from more prominent universities, such as MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford, whilst most nay-sayers are from state colleges and other underdog universities. What everyone fails to realize is that your privacy online is already hampered. You sign it away when you join sites like Facebook, MySpace, DeviantART, and Friendster. Why do you complain about changes that compromise your privacy, especially when the system is opt-out? If you don't want your friends (whom you can *gasp* designate at your convenience) know that you wrote on someone's wall, added a buddy from high school, or discussed the new changes in a Developers group, perhaps you shouldn't be their friend. Or maybe you shouldn't even be on Facebook.
Enough bitching already. You joined Facebook to learn about your friends, not add 1000's of random friends. No one is stalking you and if they are, maybe you shouldn't even be on Facebook." -Facebook user
My thoughts:
It seems like a majority of the users that are complaining about the "feeds" feature is the fact that it seems to impede upon privacy. Mark Zuckerberg defended that one could adjust his or her privacy settings such that only certain people can view these feeds. He also did not say whether they will remove the feature or not in the near future despite the complaints. It seems like it is here to stay.
What's ironic is that once you join Facebook, not everything is going to be private. I really hope that people realize that whatever you put on your Facebook profile will be used by many marketing research firms that want to buy this information. Some friends noted that the new Facebook just looks "shitty" and that they are uncomfortable with the amount of information available on facebook. On the other hand, I do have friends who feel the new feature adds more convenience and that everyone will eventually use it anyway.
We demand that either the feature goes, or that we have an option to remove ourselves from the feature. Nothing people write on our walls, or what we write, or what we update goes up on the "News Feed." These are small demands of your users, but we are here to complain and protect our privacy.
I know it's odd to protest facebook through facebook, but this perhaps is the best way for them to get the message.
Until this feature is removed or changed to protect my privacy, I WILL NOT update my profile, and I hope you will too.
So join here, and you're part of the petition to remove the most undelightful feature to have ever hit facebook." -Students Against Facebook News Feed (Official Petition to Facebook)
"Dear Mark,
We're all real glad that you've come up with some innovative "products" here on Facebook; however the majority of us couldn't care less. We all joined Facebook because it provided a communal space on the internet in a world of increasing privatization and stratification. We, the community, the ones who keep Facebook alive and bring you all that big advertising revenue, hate this news feed bullshit. Listen to the people Mark, and restore Facebook to what it once was!" -An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg
Other interesting quotes:
It's ironic that most of the people who enjoy the new changes, including the developers of them, are from more prominent universities, such as MIT, Stanford, Harvard, and Oxford, whilst most nay-sayers are from state colleges and other underdog universities. What everyone fails to realize is that your privacy online is already hampered. You sign it away when you join sites like Facebook, MySpace, DeviantART, and Friendster. Why do you complain about changes that compromise your privacy, especially when the system is opt-out? If you don't want your friends (whom you can *gasp* designate at your convenience) know that you wrote on someone's wall, added a buddy from high school, or discussed the new changes in a Developers group, perhaps you shouldn't be their friend. Or maybe you shouldn't even be on Facebook.
Enough bitching already. You joined Facebook to learn about your friends, not add 1000's of random friends. No one is stalking you and if they are, maybe you shouldn't even be on Facebook." -Facebook user
My thoughts:
It seems like a majority of the users that are complaining about the "feeds" feature is the fact that it seems to impede upon privacy. Mark Zuckerberg defended that one could adjust his or her privacy settings such that only certain people can view these feeds. He also did not say whether they will remove the feature or not in the near future despite the complaints. It seems like it is here to stay.
What's ironic is that once you join Facebook, not everything is going to be private. I really hope that people realize that whatever you put on your Facebook profile will be used by many marketing research firms that want to buy this information. Some friends noted that the new Facebook just looks "shitty" and that they are uncomfortable with the amount of information available on facebook. On the other hand, I do have friends who feel the new feature adds more convenience and that everyone will eventually use it anyway.
posted by Koh @ 7:29 AM
2 Comments:
I think the worst portion is that it doesn't feed it using standard RSS/Atom. Donna claims that Mark says (double hearsay!!) it uses RSS. I can't find the link in the code - and I've looked through it pretty extensively.
Well, that and the fact that you cannot disable the automatic posting of items to the feed.
That's what I thought was odd. No RSS/Atom code in sight. I really think that Facebook just wants to milk all the marketing research fees they can get out of this site. Oh well, hopefully they listen to the masses because some people are commenting that facebook is becoming "uncool" which is never a great thing for a social networking site.
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