More on facebook
A month and a half ago I wrote a post called “Facebook is a scary beast” and highlighted how despite the flexibility in its API and the (only) apparent openness, it is becoming a huge closed personal data silo. My concerns then are now voiced also by Danah Boyd in her post “confused by Facebook” which I definitely think you should read. Not only that, but Danah also highlights a few security concerns about Facebook’s new public profile option, which is likely bound to piss some people off.
I’m also befuddled by the slippery slope of Facebook. Today, they announced public search listings on Facebook. I’m utterly fascinated by how people talk about Facebook as being more private, more secure than MySpace. By default, people’s FB profiles are only available to their network. Join a City network and your profile is far more open than you realize. Accept the default search listings and you’re findable on Google. The default is far beyond friends-only and locking a FB profile down to friends-only takes dozens of clicks in numerous different locations. Plus, you never can really tell because if you join a new network, everything is by-default open to that network (including your IM and phone number). To make matters weirder, if you install an App, you give the creator access to all of your profile data (no one reads those checkboxes anyhow).
Truth is, a lot of the initial appeal of Facebook is going away – quickly. Applications are cluttering profiles (no, I really don’t want to see more LOLcats or Zombie invitations, thanks), groups and communities are wide-open and now profiles are by default too. Facebook was regarded for a very long time as a closed and private community, but that has changed. When (and how?) will the glorified address book now with a dash of app-chaos regain it’s cool?
Good morning Fred,
I could not agree more. I have been experimenting with Facebook and frankly I find it all a bit irritating. The “games” and comaprative analysis exercises are somewhat pointless and do not appear to improve one’s quality of life. I was particularly annoyed by a trashy sponsored item that appeared in my News Feeds this week. Facebook removed it. It was a multiple choice quiz about picking up female partners! Pathetic!
I just read this item on Twitter Facts. “Messages from private Twitter accounts should be only read by other Twitter accounts that have been approved by the owner of the private Twitter account. I discovered that messages from private Twitter accounts can be read by other users on Facebook.”
http://twitterfacts.blogspot.com/2007/09/private-twitter-accounts-visible-on.html
Facebook is indeed headed down a slippery slope.
Cheers
John
ironic thing is facebook went down hill when it started marketing to all you other blue hairs. facebook was hip when it was exclusive…when the people on were hormone-enraged 18-22 year olds. but when you start to throw in a bunch of old farts into the mix the cool factor is bound to go down
in all seriousness…the composition of Facebook’s memberbase will look a lot like Yahoo’s. There will be pockets of sanity and well mannered interactions but there will also be the kind of NY times square-close your-eyes-and-dont-look type of shenanigans that start to mark any well populated network.