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| By Justin Smith | 59 Comments » |
Facebook has just announced that it’s now testing a new version of the “publisher” that allows users to choose who can see their status updates and posts. The most interesting part? The first option is “everyone.”
In other words, Facebook is making it easy for users to post status updates that are visible not just to their Facebook friends – but for the entire world (and Google) to see. Facebook has said for a long time that it’s planned to give users more granular privacy controls over status updates, but Facebook has never promoted making status updates publicly visible this heavily before – though the company did take a step back in March to allow users to share some content on their profiles with everyone.
By contrast, Twitter’s public nature has made the site increasingly popular amongst users interested in broadcasting their messages as widely as possible or unconcerned with privacy. Now, users will have the same opportunity to be just as public on Facebook without getting a Facebook Page (“public profile”) as well.
According to Facebook, users can now choose to share status updates with:
- Everyone: Anyone, on or off, of Facebook can see it.
- Friends and Networks: People you have confirmed as friends and people in any school or work networks that you’ve joined can see it.
- Friends of Friends: Anyone who is friends with a friend of yours can see it.
- Friends: Only people you have confirmed as friends can see it.
- Custom: Choose any friend or Friend List to include or exclude from seeing that piece of content.
The concept behind per-item privacy controls on shared content is powerful: now, users can share content that’s not privacy-sensitive publicly (like interesting links or comments about the weather) while still only sharing personal information with friends. The new publisher also allow users to only share status updates with particular friend lists, making it easy to share content that’s only intended for some friends to not be visible to others.
Facebook says the new publisher is now available to people “who had previously set their status updates and profile privacy settings to be visible to ‘Everyone,’” but that the test should be expanded to more users soon. We’ll of course keep you updated as Facebook contniues to roll out the new publisher more widely.
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June 24th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I really wonder why Facebook tries so hard to copy Twitter rather than creating new, richer functionality that Twitter wouldn’t be able to offer in their stringent univers…
June 24th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
god post, but shouldn’t it have been titled “Facebook Takes Aim At Twitter (Again)” =)
June 24th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
contniues
June 24th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I also done a post on this: http://blog.codegenie.co.uk/2009/06/24/facebook-takes-on-twitter/ I don’t think Twitter will suffer.
June 24th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
This is taking way too long to happen.
June 24th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
Shouldn’t facebook make it more like a FriendFeed UI?
Bests,
Alex (GuruOfSales)
June 24th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Wait, are you sure that they’re going to be “googlable?” Because it makes more sense that they’ll be public to *everyone on Facebook*, but not the search engines. Then Facebook would have its very own killer social search engine that trumps Twitter’s search by miles.
They could even sell access to that data (business model?)
I’d be surprised if they were Googlable, but then again, Facebook never fails to surprise me.
June 24th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Google 3 years from now will be the leader in that sector… Google Wave will be hard 2 beat
June 24th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
It’s Mark Z’s world, we just live in it.
The choice of the word “Everyone” is cleverly evil in its ambiguity. When assigned as a default, a sizable percentage of people will misinterpret it as “everyone i’m connected to” and not as “everyone, the entire world”.
“Everyone” is the nudge word used when you want everything to be public. If you care about people’s privacy, the unambiguous word to use is, ironically, “Public”.
June 24th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Sure twitter will suffer. Twitter showed that microblogging is a big thing. Facebook adds privacy and a more reasonable character limitation and the ability to show pics and videos in the stream.
June 24th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
[...] June 24, 2009 in Uncategorized This is good news. Facebook now has public status updates. [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
[...] that IIIIIIIS interesting. Facebook offering streaming video (via uStream) and flipping up status updates. Enquiring minds might ask where is all this heading (and no it’s not because they are [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
use your facebook to sell online..
http://www.muncom.com
“Muncom.com is a free web store builder and a free online marketplace.”
“Sellers can easily create their own free online store in minutes, with free website hosting, free subdomain and a powerful admin tool to manage their free online stores.”
June 24th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
[...] [via InsideFacebook] [...]
June 24th, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I’m not sure they’ll be Googleable! That would mean giving up “precious” data to the search engines which I don’t think is a good strategy. I’m sure like Twitter they’re probably thinking “Search” as well!
June 24th, 2009 at 9:27 pm
[...] Takes Aim at Twitter: New Publisher Makes Public Status Updates Easy” Save and Share: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 1:02 am
[...] andranno in “broadcast” pubblico, creando una pagina tipo blog, o tipo microblog in stile Twitter. (Insidefacebook) Continua a Leggere su Luca De Biase Altri articoli nel nostro Incauto Aggregator [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 1:49 am
It’s meaningless to allow people to share their statuses with everyone while there’s no functionality for following other than friending (in which case you see posts anyway.) Without that, it can’t bear any resemblance to Twitter.
June 25th, 2009 at 2:06 am
[...] [來源：Inside Facebook] [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 2:16 am
[...] Burde Facebook ikke udvikle et rigere interface med nye, appelerende funktioner, som ikke kan kopieres i Twitters stringente univers? – Inside Facebook [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 5:09 am
[...] Facebook Lets Users Post Tweet-like Public Updates [Inside Facebook] [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 5:37 am
[...] Facebook is testing a redesigned publisher that makes it easy to share public status updates, it’s important to remember that some comments left inside Facebook are always public – most [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 7:40 am
[...] testet derweil ein simples Feature, mit dem Nutzer ihre Statusupdates künftig öffentlich machen können. Klingt nicht spektakulär, ist es aber. In Ergänzung zu den Vanity-URLs, die Facebook vor [...]
June 25th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Twitter got it right about what information needs to be public
Facebook was closed when MySpace was way too open
But now they must open up to compete
I think it’s still an uphill battle for Facebook as Twitter is so ingrained for public messaging
And so many cool mashups have been built with Twitter (but can’t think of any using Facebook off network – not including Facebook Connect) like:
http://tweetnews.me
Facebook needs more developers outside their network. They can’t serve everything in a walled garden.
June 25th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
[...] all: News Facebook insiders are reporting that a beta version of the site’s “publisher” allows users to choose whether [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 8:28 am
[...] Read: [insidefacebook] [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
[...] to Inside Facebook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg promised more granular privacy controls recently, and this may [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
[...] to Inside Facebook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg promised more granular privacy controls recently, and this may [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
[...] to Inside Facebook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg promised more granular privacy controls recently, and this may [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
[...] we’ve heard of more asymmetric relationships inside Facebook. As the company continues to encourage public content sharing, “following” users (instead of “friending” them) is going to become more [...]
June 26th, 2009 at 10:26 pm
[...] to Inside Facebook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg promised more granular privacy controls recently, and this may [...]
June 27th, 2009 at 1:49 am
[...] to Inside Facebook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg promised more granular privacy controls recently, and this may [...]
June 27th, 2009 at 6:43 am
[...] [via InsideFacebook] [...]
June 30th, 2009 at 1:52 pm
[...] to Inside Facebook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg promised more granular privacy controls recently, and this may have [...]
July 1st, 2009 at 4:01 am
[...] to Inside Facebook, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg promised more granular privacy controls recently, and this may [...]
July 1st, 2009 at 8:31 pm
[...] API in February to make things a bit more simpler to update/get a status. And not only that, but Facebook is additionally opening up to the idea of allowing people to post public status updates lik…r. Since Facebook failed to buyout Twitter, it surely seems like they are trying to keep their [...]
July 4th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to make [...]
July 4th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to make [...]
July 4th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to [...]
July 4th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to [...]
July 4th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. [...]
July 4th, 2009 at 11:56 pm
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to make [...]
July 5th, 2009 at 7:09 am
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to [...]
July 5th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
It’s going to be interesting to see how Facebook users who have a Twitter account react: Are they going to drop Twitter and export their contacts to Facebook? Besides, Facebook Search will become a very powerful real-time search engine.
July 6th, 2009 at 1:45 am
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 11:50 am
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to [...]
July 6th, 2009 at 4:24 pm
[...] Plus, you have to get a chuckle out of Sprint’s latest ad creative. Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to [...]
July 7th, 2009 at 2:50 am
[...] Facebook Takes Aim at Twitter: New Publisher Makes Public Status Updates Easy; [...]
July 11th, 2009 at 7:22 am
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to [...]
July 15th, 2009 at 4:03 am
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook today has additional Twitter inspired feature. They’ve pronounceable discover the [...]
July 19th, 2009 at 4:17 am
[...] את ריכוז המידע האישי הגדול ביותר שידעה הרשת. כמובן שאט אט פייסבוק משחררת הוראות אבטחה למשתמשים לבחור אם הם רוצים שהמידע שלהם יהיה פרטי [...]
July 20th, 2009 at 1:01 am
[...] Facebook Takes Aim at Twitter: New Publisher Makes Public Status Updates Easy [...]
July 24th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
[...] month ago today, Facebook started testing a new version of the “publisher” that allows users to choose who can see their status updates [...]
July 29th, 2009 at 7:45 am
[...] greater user openness (a la Twitter) this year, two product priorities are leading the way. First, Facebook’s new privacy controls will make it easier for Facebook users to share content publicly with everyone. Second, [...]
August 10th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
[...] be exchanging their stock certificates. Facebook has recently been creating new ways for users to share information more publicly that are directly competitive with the public nature of sharing on [...]
August 11th, 2009 at 12:37 am
[...] Public Status Updates – Facebook now has another Twitter inspired feature. They’ve rolled out the ability to make [...]
September 21st, 2009 at 1:56 am
[...] Facebook Takes Aim at Twitter: New Publisher Makes Public Status Updates Easy [...]
October 21st, 2009 at 10:42 am
[...] for making various pieces of profile data more public. Then, in June, the company announced it was testing a new “publisher” that included a more obvious option for making status updates public. Then, in August, it rolled [...]
November 7th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
[...] has already moved in the direction of testing Twitter-like status updates in that one can open up their updates to everyone on an individual post basis. Add the ability to [...]