Facebook deals with backlash over new feature
Cory Bergman September 7th, 2006
When I saw the new social networking feature on Facebook, called News Feed, I have to admit I thought it was downright cool. In essense, it alerts you of any changes in your friends’ profiles and relationships. So, Jenny is now friends with Steve, and Rick added some photos, Kate added a favorite activity and Bob wrote a new blog post. Even though News Feed just aggregates information that friends are already publicizing on Facebook on their own profiles — and users can opt out of the new feature — there’s been a massive backlash. One protest group already boasts 500,000 members, and many are calling for a boycott. Which raises the question, can a network be too social? And it underlines the simple fact that social networks are controlled by the community, and new features should be developed in collaboration with them. So if Facebook had previewed the feature, asked for feedback and made some suggested changes, I doubt the site would be facing a backlash. (Digg is a great example of a social network that listens intently to its users.) Meanwhile, Facebook is asking users to “breathe” as it scrambles to figure out what to do next. A good lesson learned for all social networking sites.
15 Comments Add your own
1. Alyssa | September 7th, 2006 at 11:26 am
myspace and friendster have similar features. what’s the big deal? (esp. if you can opt out of it)
2. Corey Spring | September 7th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I don’t like the new design aesthetically, either.
3. thomas | September 7th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
the issue is you cant opt out of it on facebook, and a lot of people on facebook dont like myspace because it intrudes on privacy and harbors wackjobs and pervs
4. Dave | September 7th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
It sucks… I hate it. I’m part of that big group of haters.
There is no opt out feature FYI.
5. Alyssa | September 7th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
the reason I never joined Facebook is that it seems only too easy to cyber-stalk on it.
6. Safran | September 7th, 2006 at 2:41 pm
I deny being friends with Jenny. Always happy to hear about Kate, tho.
7. Curtis | September 7th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
To clarify: You can opt out of individual items. Each time you change your profile, RSVP to an event, add a photo, etc . . .you can select that individual item and hide it.
Facebook didn’t publicize this option too well. And, it’s a bit tedious doing it that way anyway.
8. Darrien | September 7th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
I think this backlash has more to do with kids refusing to realize that really dont have 200, 300, 500+ friends. When I logged on and saw it for the first time I was kind of shocked, but then I found the news feed very useful. I kinda hope it doesn’t change much.
9. Jordan | September 8th, 2006 at 4:05 am
But Saf, Rick is a total ass.. Gawd..
10. Lost Remote TV Blog&hellip | September 8th, 2006 at 9:19 am
[...] Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has responded to all the criticism with a post on his blog. “We really messed this one up,” he writes. “Somehow we missed this point with (News Feed) and we didn’t build in the proper privacy controls right away. This was a big mistake on our part, and I’m sorry for it.” So Zuckerberg says the Facebook team has been “coding nonstop for two days” to build better privacy controls that allow users wide control to decide what information makes the News Feed. “This may sound silly, but I want to thank all of you who have written in and created groups and protested. Even though I wish I hadn’t made so many of you angry, I am glad we got to hear you,” he writes. As I mentioned yesterday, it’s a big learning experience for any social network or predominately user-generated content site: listen and collaborate with your users BEFORE you launch new stuff. (Thanks for the tip Dave!) [...]
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