Filed under: Web services, Social Software
Facebook users freak out, CEO responds
Yesterday I reported on Facebook's new News Feed and Mini-Feed features, which allow Facebook users to see all of their friends' and groups' public activity at a glance. I praised the feature, but it turns out that a lot of actual Facebook users are having a bit of a freak-out. Okay, they're having a lot of a freak-out. Since the News Feed went live yesterday, literally hundreds of thousands of Facebook members have started and joined groups with names like "Students Against the Facebook News Feed," "Students for Facebook Privacy," "I Hate the New Facebook," and even "Ruchi Sanghvi, Creator of the news feed, is an idiot." I'm not even kidding. There are also petitions, boycotts, and other protests in the works. Apparently if you want to mobilize the youth of America, changing their Facebook is the way to do it.Facebook is not deaf, of course, and in response Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has made a post to the official Facebook blog entitled Calm down. Breathe. We hear you, saying of the features, "We think they are great products, but we know that many of you are not immediate fans, and have found them overwhelming and cluttered. Other people are concerned that non-friends can see too much about them. We are listening to all your suggestions about how to improve the product; it's brand new and still evolving." He goes on to reinforce the fact that, in terms of privacy, Facebook hasn't changed. "None of your information is visible to anyone who couldn't see it before the changes," he says, "If you turned off your wall to non-friends, no one who is not your friend will be able to see a post on your wall. Your friends can still see it; it hasn't changed. Secret groups and secret events remain secret from other people. Pokes and messages remain as private interactions. Nothing you do is being broadcast; rather, it is being shared with people who care about what you do-your friends."
Some users, however, believe that while none of their information is truly any less private, the News Feed makes "stalking" too easy. I'm on the same page as TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, however: "If this feature had been part Facebook since the beginning, their users would be screaming if Facebook tried to remove it. It's a powerful way to quickly get lots of information about people you care about, with easy settings to remove that information for privacy reasons. ... An easy fix to the problem is for Facebook to simply make each of the new products optional. Users who don't participate will quickly find that they are falling out of the attention stream, and I suspect will quickly add themselves back in." I agree on all counts. Facebook will undoubtedly lose a few users over this, but I have no doubt that those users will be far outnumbered by those who will become hopelessly addicted to the News Feed just like they're already addicted to Facebook's other features.
Now... cue the haters.
After spending the better part of an hour on 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
resource said 9:57AM on 9-06-2006
Nooo!!!
Change!!!!
Maybe this will stop people from adding bullshit strangers to their friend list.
If you don't want someone to know about you, then don't make them your friend.
They're acting like MySpace now.
The feeds make the site better.
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Kris said 10:24AM on 9-06-2006
I love it... a friend of mine had said people who joined these groups/petitions and such are using facebook and pushing it's traffic ten fold comparred to facebook's normal daily load (ok, not exactly but still.) Which means, that much more adverts.
Just a thought. I agree with you entirely though.
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nalgae said 12:04PM on 9-06-2006
The only valid argument I can see against the feeds is the dislike of clutter. Other than that, it's s a great feature. You basically log onto facebook to do two things: update your profile and see what updates your friends have made. The feeds obviously make the latter much easier.
I have no idea why people think it's so "stalkerish." The whole point of Facebook is to display your information, really.
Anyway, I think a good solution would be to get rid of the mini-feed, but keep the big feed when you first log in.
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Parallel Johnny said 12:11PM on 9-06-2006
I hope they don't cripple it. This is the feature I had been waiting for. Everything I want to know is right in front of me. I'll agree that they didn't have to include EVERYTHING in the front page feed. I don't really care to know when a friend befriended others. And maybe the relationship status is a little too personal to have broadcast on your friends' front page.
FYI there is a small feature no one has mentioned. While on your own profile page there is the mini-feed, the things your friends will see on their front page. Next to each entry is an "x" to hide that event from being broadcast over the feed.
They could just allow you to set certain types of details not to be included in the feed by default.
Actually I wish they just covered their ears. I like this feature the way it is. I guess I like to 'stalk' my friends.
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Joey S. said 2:59PM on 9-06-2006
I guess I disagree. I joined facebook for one purpose; I wanted a way to easily keep in contact with people that I rarely see and may not have a phone number for. More and more features are added and I know many people like them, but for me it's just cluttering up facebook and preventing it from being really good at what I want it for. I find it kind of strange that people feel the need to use some of these features. Why would you want to know so much detailed information about people, especially when you rarely talk to or see these people in person? Facebook keeps people in contact still, but to most it is simply a time waster. Look at the success of the ipod. There are a billion mp3 players that have more "extras" than the ipod, but I (and most people) use an ipod because it does the couple of things i need it for really well. The more facebook strays from it's real use, the further it pushes me away.
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Nathan said 3:44PM on 9-06-2006
Lets see....use facebook, put your phonenumber, your address and more on...and you want privacy. If you wanted privacy you woulnd't have used facebook to begin with. This doesn't make someone a stalker...it simpley makes it easier to stalk someone. I have no problem with people knowing whats on my facebook account...I put it there....if I didn't want you to see it, it wouldn't be there.
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Michael Haydel said 4:32PM on 9-06-2006
I just started a group called "Students *For* The New Facebook".
For one, as best I can tell, no one else has, which is surprising.
Secondly, I actually think, as you note here, that current facebookers just don't see how beneficial this can be on a site like Facebook.
Of course, I was only able to invite 60 people (I'm in no way an avid facebooker), so no telling if it'll spread.
Maybe you guys can help get the word out.
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Sidd said 5:37PM on 9-06-2006
some people really are hopelessly addicted to facebook
its kinda sad
if you wanna talk to yuor friends call them and make conversation quickyl, instead of waiting for a few hours until that person responds. Or just email them, its the same response time and the whole world wont see what your talking about either.
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Kacie said 5:43PM on 9-06-2006
I have mixed feelings about the new feed. I like how I can see when people update pictures, or when someone messages me, but I find it ridiculous to see who is "now single" or so and so commented on this person's profile. I think that an on/off button for each type of feed would be useful, so that each person can choose to see what they want to read and also for other people to see what your doing without "xing" out each individual event.
Just a suggestion.
Kacie
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Steve said 5:46PM on 9-06-2006
Here is a live counter of the number of people who have joined the "Students against Facebook News Feed" group on Facebook..... 300,000 and climbing
http://digg.com/tech_news/Facebook_Stalker_City_Includes_LIVE_Counter
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Geoff said 2:26AM on 9-07-2006
If people actually read the agreements they agree to when they sign up for sites, they would've seen this:
"By posting Member Content to any part of the Web site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, perform, display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such information and content and to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such information and content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.
You may remove your Member Content from the Web site at any time. If you choose to remove your Member Content, the license granted above will automatically expire."
Right there. By joining and using Facebook, you agree to let them dislay your content anywhere and anyway they want.
I opted to join Facebook. I opted to post personal info. I'm not complaining one bit.
New features should stay.
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Jay said 4:44PM on 9-07-2006
I have major problems with the newsfeed.
Indeed, all of the privacy settings have stayed the same. But there's a difference between someone noticing a few a changes in your profile to every single adjustment being timestamped and broadcast to everyone you know. It's the difference between making a joke to a friend that you don't mind other people hearing and calling all of your friends and screaming "HEY, LISTEN TO THIS!!!"
I had a friend who was in a relationship and switched her profile to "single." Instead of people organically noticing the adjustment over time, it was smack dab on everyone's homepage this morning and her wall was bombarded with questions and comments.
Voyeurism is expected, but Facebook should at least make it a challenge.
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