Facebook deals with backlash over new feature

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.