With all the talk lately about Facebook Privacy I decided to revisit my Facebook Privacy settings again. I wrote about this back in December (frightening – only about 6 months ago) but needed to check again as they changed things again, and then again. Unfortunately I think it’s going to become a way of life in Facebook
k to have to keep checking this stuff – as I fear they are on a path from private to public – as they can make more money that way. Of course this is quite annoying to some of us – as it feels like a breach of trust. To see your settings hover over “Account” (on the upper-right part of the screen) then “Privacy Settings”.
One thing Facebook just recently did was publish a summary of your privacy settings – which is good. On the right I’m showing my settings – which are pretty conservative. I basically set most of my stuff to be private – i.e. only my friends can see it – as I use Facebook in a private manner (For public items I have a website, Facebook FAN Pages, Twitter, etc.) – for me it’s me – only for my friends. I would highly recommend that everyone review these settings very carefully to know what you are sharing – your posts, photos, bio, who can comment on posts, contact information, etc.
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If you’re like me you’re tired of seeing the 18,000th posting about what someone is doing in Facebook. Silly me – but I want actual content from people I’m friends with. The good news is you can quickly block an application – and magic – it disappears from your news feed.
Here’s the article I found that details how to do it: http://www.askdavetaylor.com/how_to_block_facebook_apps_posting_status_wall.html The short version is you click on the app name in your news feed and then on the subsequent feed you “block” the application”. So much better…
I just realized how much Facebook is integrated into my life now. My dad just passed away (it’s still not real as we haven’t had the funeral yet) and I used Facebook to pass the word. In one sense it’s kind of freakish – as that’s an impersonal way to communicate.
For me Facebook was frankly a very efficient way to get the word out – to interact with people. One of the reasons I like Facebook is that it allows you to connect with people in an easy way. I can post one item about my life that’s share with so many people. And it’s better than just a broadcast e-mail – as you can interact with each other. I don’t want it to replace all relationships in my life – but it’s very useful for people who live far away. This may make feasible to keep up easily with those friends that move away.
It may also appeal to the geek in me – which I got from my Father. Writing something online seems so natural – so second nature now (isn’t that strange how quickly that’s changed). Facebook also fills that asynchronous nature of communication – in that you can communicate with many people – just not at the same time. That’s also why texting has become so popular – as you can better time manage your communication.
In some ways this makes the world so much more impersonal – but in others more personal. I can understand the smaller items of your life by what you share – in ways we probably wouldn’t do otherwise.
This was pretty much a rambling – but that’s about the energy and intelligence I have this week…
Facebook is reportedly turning off app notifications from the news feed: http://mashable.com/2010/02/26/facebook-app-notifications-gone/
What would Facebook be like without these – more usable or something? Of course, I wonder then if I’ll ever hear from some people – as it seems that’s all I see is app notifications (those I haven’t blocked yet…). I know Facebook apps are money makers – but they’re kind of annoying. If I see one more Fishville notification….
The news about Google is starting to get interesting – in terms of the scope of what they are addressing now. Google seems to be building a vertical stack of services to cover almost everything to do with the computer. This goes back to what Jeff Jarvis said – Google makes money when we use the web (advertising, advertising, advertising) – and faster means more:
- Google announced today they’re planning on testing out a new 1 gigabit internet service (http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi) – so they could be in the neighborhood soon.
- Google has a DNS service (http://code.google.com/speed/public-dns/) – the magic thingy that translates the names we type in into the numbers that define the internet.
- Google has Gmail – it’s free web-based e-mail service. It has a corresponding calendar, contacts, etc. service. One concept of calendars is you can share them – have group calendars, etc.
- Google has it’s Google Docs – word, processing, spreadsheets, presentation, etc. – so you can do those basics online. View full article »
The other day I was working on a Facebook “FAN” page for a client of mine and posted an update as a link to a page on his site. I was surprised at how effective the link preview looked – it managed to capture not only a picture from the page but some key text off the page. I was very happy with the results and wanted to brag about a good piece of technology:
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With all the talk lately about Facebook Privacy I decided to revisit my Facebook Privacy settings again. I wrote about this back in December (frightening – only about 6 months ago) but needed to check again as they changed things again, and then again. Unfortunately I think it’s going to become a way of life in Facebook