Networks no more

04/12/09 posted by Liz Niland

If Facebook were a country, it’d be the world’s third largest. Rating only behind China and India in terms of “population”, Facebook’s privacy controls are set for a long overdue overhaul. Back in the old days when everyone else was still using Myspace, the idea of “networks” was convenient. This was so everyone in a given country, region, school or company could enjoy your uploaded content - obviously this was also before parents, bosses and tabloid media acquainted themselves with social networking.



As noted in a blog post this week by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, this privacy model is becoming more and more irrelevant and significantly less private. “The plan we've come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.” Granted it’s not a groundbreaking development, but Zuckerberg also noted that users will be prompted to “review and update your privacy settings” as the changes come into play.

The Yahoo-using punters of Facebook’s 350 million earthlings have something else to get excited about this week: the two sites announced they’ll be allowing the intermingling of their activity streams. Yahoo users are are already able to check their Facebook in a preview window without leaving Yahoo, but the plan now is to move more towards cross-platform posting and notifications. Posted something on Flickr? It’s set to hit your Facebook newsfeed. You’re also likely to see your contact’s new Facebook status in your Yahoo updates.

Google Friend Connect has also created a similar tie-in with Twitter. This integration makes it seem as though social networking is fast becoming something we do because we have to - not because we want to.