Facebook announced today that it is making it easier to share information with specific people in the platform through an inline sharing button and revisions to its tagging system. The options will be next to everything that can be shared on Facebook, allowing users to customize who does and does not get to see what you post.
Facebook is responding to the threat posed by Google Plus and its “circles” feature. It is also responding to privacy advocates and to its 750 million users. “The main change is moving most of your controls from a settings page to being inline, right next to the posts, photos and tags they affect,” Facebook wrote in its blog. Combing through comments to Facebook’s post about the change, the refrain seems to be “thank Google Plus for the inspiration” and, of course, “where is the dislike button?!”
Facebook made several significant changes to its privacy settings through the new inline buttons. The inline tag review and sharing buttons are the obvious changes as they affect much of what is shared on Facebook. Users can now approve all tags made to their content and photos, as opposed to how it was before where anyone that could see the content could tag it. Facebook is also making it easier to see how others see your profile with a new “view profile as” button at the top right of the page.
In terms of the actual inline sharing button, there are now several more options. The new settings are: Everyone (public), friends of friends and networks, friends and networks, friends of friends and customize.
Tagging is now a clearer process as well. You can now tag people who are not your actual Facebook friends but have the ability to show where that tag shows up (in your profile, on your wall etc.). You can also now tag by location, which Facebook would like to see more users do to increase the presence of its location services. When you want to remove a tag, the options are now clearer and they show up in the process of removing the tag. You can remove the tag or block the tag’s creator.
Facebook has the advantage of the incumbent position over Google Plus when it comes to rollouts like these. It is much harder for Facebook competitors to make a dent in the ecosystem as the work involved with creating such a platform is much more labor intensive than it is for Facebook to throw its army of engineers are a couple updates to the platform.
Also, there is no dislike button.
What do you think of Facebook’s changes? Are they as easy and straightforward as the company make them seem? Is this type of granular sharing something you were missing on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.
