The Facebook Blog
One of the top priorities at Facebook is offering privacy controls that let you choose exactly what you share with whom. We have largely focused on enabling you to give access to your profile to people you confirmed as friends and people in your networks. While these controls remain important and a priority for us, many of you have explained that you also want to open parts of your profile to a wider audience. Starting today, you can choose to make your profile and any of your content available to everyone on Facebook.
None of your existing privacy settings have changed. This is an additional setting for those of you who wish to share with a broader audience.
Just go to your privacy page and change the settings you want to the new "Everyone" option. You can opt to make one or all of the following profile elements more open: Profile, Status Updates, Links, Wall Posts, Basic Info, Personal Info, Education Info, Work Info, Photos of You and Videos of You.
None of your existing privacy settings have changed. This is an additional setting for those of you who wish to share with a broader audience.
Just go to your privacy page and change the settings you want to the new "Everyone" option. You can opt to make one or all of the following profile elements more open: Profile, Status Updates, Links, Wall Posts, Basic Info, Personal Info, Education Info, Work Info, Photos of You and Videos of You.
By changing your Profile setting to "Everyone", anyone who finds you through a search on Facebook or sees a post or comment you make can now click on your content and view the elements of your profile you've opted to make open. While some special rules remain in place about who can see your profile if you are a minor, people generally won't need to be friends with you or share a common network in order to view your content if you choose the new "Everyone" setting.
In the past, searching for friends you haven't seen in a while or someone who has a common name may have been difficult. You may have only been able to see their search listing and a small thumbnail version of a photo, if that. With this change, people can use the "Everyone" option and make it easier for you to find and connect to all the people you know.
Mark Slee, an engineer at Facebook, can't wait to see what everyone thinks.
We are just beginning the process of moving people over to the new Facebook and saying goodbye to the old Facebook. The new Facebook has been available for a few months for general use, and we've been iterating on it for a long time. We set out to make Facebook simpler, cleaner, more relevant, and easier to control. With your feedback and participation—over 30 million people are now using the new site—we believe we've gotten to the best Facebook yet.
Even if you've already adopted the new Facebook, you'll notice some updates to its look. Based on your feedback, we've simplified the top navigation. We also heard that people were confused about how to find their applications, so we are moving the Applications menu to the menu bar at the bottom of every page. This will make it much easier to get to your favorite applications whenever you want.
The new design is different, and we understand that some people will be uncomfortable with the changes. But over time, we think people will appreciate the advantages of the new design and the new features it offers. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in and report bugs, give suggestions, and offer their thoughts. It's helped us create something we are really proud of. Please explore the site and keep letting us know what you think.
Mark is the Product Manager for the new Facebook.
Even if you've already adopted the new Facebook, you'll notice some updates to its look. Based on your feedback, we've simplified the top navigation. We also heard that people were confused about how to find their applications, so we are moving the Applications menu to the menu bar at the bottom of every page. This will make it much easier to get to your favorite applications whenever you want.
The new design is different, and we understand that some people will be uncomfortable with the changes. But over time, we think people will appreciate the advantages of the new design and the new features it offers. Thanks to everyone who took the time to write in and report bugs, give suggestions, and offer their thoughts. It's helped us create something we are really proud of. Please explore the site and keep letting us know what you think.
Mark is the Product Manager for the new Facebook.
Hopefully by now everyone has used the new Facebook. If you haven't, you can do so now by going to www.new.facebook.com. The new Facebook has been available for opt in for well over a month now, and so far over 30 million people have checked it out, and many are already using it as their full time Facebook.
We've also gotten a chance to hear feedback from over 600,000 people, and we really appreciate all the time you took to write in. We've heard positive feedback, negative feedback, bug reports, and a whole lot of questions. We wanted to take this chance to answer some of the most frequently asked questions and talk a little more about the process that went in to creating the new Facebook.
Here are some of the most common questions we've been getting:
Why did you change everything?
When we set out to update Facebook, we tried to keep three things in mind. First of all, we wanted to make the site clean and simple by reducing clutter; we wanted to give you more control over your profile, and we wanted to focus on the recent and relevant content on the site.
That said, we know it can be hard to get used to things being in different places, which is why we wanted to make it easy for you to switch back and forth for a little while, in order to learn where everything went, and how the new site works.
Where are my applications?
None of your applications are gone, and they are now in a few places. Most of your profile boxes have been moved over to your Boxes tab on your profile. You may have noticed a few boxes on your Wall and Info tabs as well. You can choose up to five boxes from your Boxes tab to move to your Wall tab, but keep in mind that not all application developers have created boxes to fit in that space yet.
Also, some applications have tabs that you can add to your profile. Again, not all applications have this yet, but many developers are working on it.
Lastly, we've seen a lot of feedback that applications were hard to find in the top menu, so we've been working hard on different design iterations to make it easier to get to your applications. We're close to the right solution, so you should see that soon.
Why did you split the profile into tabs?
By splitting the profile into tabs, we were able to make a cleaner, more organized profile. Now similar information types stay together—all of the information you set about yourself on your Info tab, all of your photos on your Photos tab, and your application boxes in the Boxes tab. The Wall tab is how we chose to focus on the recent and relevant. This way when you visit a friend's profile, you can really get a sense of what's going on in their life.
What is the deal with the new Wall?
The new Wall is a compilation of content about you and by you, all in chronological order. With so much information on profiles, we realized that the easiest way to help people figure out what was important was through a stream of information. Instead of needing to look at a million places to figure out what your friend has been doing lately, you can see the photos she's added, or read what his friends have said about last weekend. Additionally, the new publisher allows you to post content straight to your Wall without ever leaving your profile.
Sometime soon, we're going to switch everyone over to the new Facebook. We can't maintain both versions, and we really think you'll like the new Facebook once you get used to the changes. So hop on over to new.facebook.com and give it a try. And don't forget to let us know what you think using the "Send Feedback" links.
Mark is in with the new.
We've also gotten a chance to hear feedback from over 600,000 people, and we really appreciate all the time you took to write in. We've heard positive feedback, negative feedback, bug reports, and a whole lot of questions. We wanted to take this chance to answer some of the most frequently asked questions and talk a little more about the process that went in to creating the new Facebook.
Here are some of the most common questions we've been getting:
Why did you change everything?
When we set out to update Facebook, we tried to keep three things in mind. First of all, we wanted to make the site clean and simple by reducing clutter; we wanted to give you more control over your profile, and we wanted to focus on the recent and relevant content on the site.
That said, we know it can be hard to get used to things being in different places, which is why we wanted to make it easy for you to switch back and forth for a little while, in order to learn where everything went, and how the new site works.
Where are my applications?
None of your applications are gone, and they are now in a few places. Most of your profile boxes have been moved over to your Boxes tab on your profile. You may have noticed a few boxes on your Wall and Info tabs as well. You can choose up to five boxes from your Boxes tab to move to your Wall tab, but keep in mind that not all application developers have created boxes to fit in that space yet.
Also, some applications have tabs that you can add to your profile. Again, not all applications have this yet, but many developers are working on it.
Lastly, we've seen a lot of feedback that applications were hard to find in the top menu, so we've been working hard on different design iterations to make it easier to get to your applications. We're close to the right solution, so you should see that soon.
Why did you split the profile into tabs?
By splitting the profile into tabs, we were able to make a cleaner, more organized profile. Now similar information types stay together—all of the information you set about yourself on your Info tab, all of your photos on your Photos tab, and your application boxes in the Boxes tab. The Wall tab is how we chose to focus on the recent and relevant. This way when you visit a friend's profile, you can really get a sense of what's going on in their life.
What is the deal with the new Wall?
The new Wall is a compilation of content about you and by you, all in chronological order. With so much information on profiles, we realized that the easiest way to help people figure out what was important was through a stream of information. Instead of needing to look at a million places to figure out what your friend has been doing lately, you can see the photos she's added, or read what his friends have said about last weekend. Additionally, the new publisher allows you to post content straight to your Wall without ever leaving your profile.
Sometime soon, we're going to switch everyone over to the new Facebook. We can't maintain both versions, and we really think you'll like the new Facebook once you get used to the changes. So hop on over to new.facebook.com and give it a try. And don't forget to let us know what you think using the "Send Feedback" links.
Mark is in with the new.
Starting this morning, more and more users started seeing prompts on their home pages inviting them to switch over and try out the new Facebook. We're also really happy to say that anyone can try out the new site now by visiting http://www.new.facebook.co
Over the past six months, 100,000 of you have offered to help improve the user experience on Facebook by giving your feedback and suggestions, and we're excited to show you what we've come up with. Here are some highlights:
The Wall now surfaces the most recent and relevant information—in the form of posts of stories—about you. We believe that having a constant stream of information, or "feed" is the most effective way to learn about and keep up with friends. Just as News Feed helps you know what is happening in your social circle, you can use the Wall as a way to give your friends the full story of what's happening with you.
A big piece of the Wall is the Publisher, which enables you to publish content—photos, notes, your status, and so on—directly to your Wall. The Publisher works with most applications so that you have one place to go to add content to your own profile or to a friends'.
The profile is very personal; it's important to us that everyone have control over their own profile. Along those lines, once you've published stories or posted content, you can adjust the size to promote the things you care about most, and demote the stories you don't find as interesting.
One of our key goals of this project has always been to make the site simpler and cleaner. The new tabbed profile should help a lot in this respect, breaking your information into tabs by type. The Wall tab displays most recent and relevant information both about you and by you. The Info tab shows information about you that doesn't change frequently. The Photos tab shows photos of you as well as your albums. The Boxes tab features all of your existing application boxes. You're also able to add tabs for your favorite applications.
Keep in mind, nothing with your privacy is changing with this; in fact, the new story formats should offer even greater control over what and how information is shared. We still respect all the same, trusted privacy controls as before. Thanks again for the feedback, and enjoy the new Facebook.
Mark is the Product Manager for the new profile.
Over the past six months, 100,000 of you have offered to help improve the user experience on Facebook by giving your feedback and suggestions, and we're excited to show you what we've come up with. Here are some highlights:
The Wall now surfaces the most recent and relevant information—in the form of posts of stories—about you. We believe that having a constant stream of information, or "feed" is the most effective way to learn about and keep up with friends. Just as News Feed helps you know what is happening in your social circle, you can use the Wall as a way to give your friends the full story of what's happening with you.
A big piece of the Wall is the Publisher, which enables you to publish content—photos, notes, your status, and so on—directly to your Wall. The Publisher works with most applications so that you have one place to go to add content to your own profile or to a friends'.
The profile is very personal; it's important to us that everyone have control over their own profile. Along those lines, once you've published stories or posted content, you can adjust the size to promote the things you care about most, and demote the stories you don't find as interesting.
One of our key goals of this project has always been to make the site simpler and cleaner. The new tabbed profile should help a lot in this respect, breaking your information into tabs by type. The Wall tab displays most recent and relevant information both about you and by you. The Info tab shows information about you that doesn't change frequently. The Photos tab shows photos of you as well as your albums. The Boxes tab features all of your existing application boxes. You're also able to add tabs for your favorite applications.
Keep in mind, nothing with your privacy is changing with this; in fact, the new story formats should offer even greater control over what and how information is shared. We still respect all the same, trusted privacy controls as before. Thanks again for the feedback, and enjoy the new Facebook.
Mark is the Product Manager for the new profile.
Earlier today we had a small press event where we walked a few reporters and bloggers through the upcoming changes to the profile. We got to reiterate our intention of making the profile cleaner and simpler, and more relevant, while still giving you control over your profile. It was a great opportunity to answer questions and clear up any confusions about the upcoming changes.
Journalists aren't the only ones who get a sneak peek. You can see all of the same information on the Facebook Profiles Preview Page. Learn more about tabs, the new publisher, resizing of news feed stories, and more. We recommend starting with our "Overview" album, or, if you're itching to find out what happened at the Open Door Event, check out the video of it.
Mark Slee is the Product Manager for the Profile changes.
Journalists aren't the only ones who get a sneak peek. You can see all of the same information on the Facebook Profiles Preview Page. Learn more about tabs, the new publisher, resizing of news feed stories, and more. We recommend starting with our "Overview" album, or, if you're itching to find out what happened at the Open Door Event, check out the video of it.
Mark Slee is the Product Manager for the Profile changes.
Good luck finding borders like this on the site today.
When Facebook first launched in February 2004, there were three important things that you could do on the site. You could create a profile with your picture and information, view other people's profiles, and add people as friends. The site also featured ugly dotted borders and strangely aligned labels. Back then, the site was only available at Harvard, so "friends" was really something more like "friends currently attending Harvard."
Pretty soon, more schools were added. So "friends" became "friends at some colleges." Later, we added support for alumni email addresses and high schools, so "friends" became "friends that have something to do with some kind of school." After we had those up and running, we bought a bunch more servers, opened Facebook up to the world, and learned that buying servers is easier than finding a nice place to keep them what we refer to as, "not-on-fire."
Today Facebook lets us connect and communicate with people that we are connected to in all kinds of ways — friends from school, family members, long-lost high school sweethearts of yesteryear, and weird people. They're all here.
This all begs the question... what does being friends with someone on Facebook mean today? We pondered this for a while, played some Bogglific, lathered, rinsed, repeated, and then decided that there just wasn't any single right answer.
Pretty soon, more schools were added. So "friends" became "friends at some colleges." Later, we added support for alumni email addresses and high schools, so "friends" became "friends that have something to do with some kind of school." After we had those up and running, we bought a bunch more servers, opened Facebook up to the world, and learned that buying servers is easier than finding a nice place to keep them what we refer to as, "not-on-fire."
Today Facebook lets us connect and communicate with people that we are connected to in all kinds of ways — friends from school, family members, long-lost high school sweethearts of yesteryear, and weird people. They're all here.
This all begs the question... what does being friends with someone on Facebook mean today? We pondered this for a while, played some Bogglific, lathered, rinsed, repeated, and then decided that there just wasn't any single right answer.
What lists will *you* create?
So instead, we've built and launched Friend Lists. The new Friends page lets you create named lists of friends that you can use to organize your relationships whichever way works best for you. These private lists can be used to message people, send group or event invitations, and to filter updates from certain groups of friends.
This is just a start. Expect to see lots of new Friend Lists features in 2008 that will give you more control over the information you share on Facebook and who you share it with.
Mark Slee, an Engineering Manager, is making a list, checking it twice...
This is just a start. Expect to see lots of new Friend Lists features in 2008 that will give you more control over the information you share on Facebook and who you share it with.
Mark Slee, an Engineering Manager, is making a list, checking it twice...
About a year ago we introduced Status Updates to provide a lightweight way for people to give little updates to their friends. Your profile isn't really an appropriate place to tell everyone about the delicious Chipotle you are currently enjoying, and editing your "About Me" section every 15 minutes is just creepy. So in an unprecedentedly bold move, we made a little input box starting with "I am" for everyone to use as they please.
Well, just recently our lawyers received an angry call from the Grammar Police. Really, very angry. As hard as we tried, we just weren't perfect about converting "I am" to "Mark is" without breaking a few rules along the way. We scratched our heads, went to Chipotle, and then decided that we could just change the input to say "Mark is" instead of "I am." Crisis averted.
While we were at it, we decided to make some other improvements. Here's what's shiny and new:
Mark is a Technical Lead at Facebook. That's his job, not his status.
Well, just recently our lawyers received an angry call from the Grammar Police. Really, very angry. As hard as we tried, we just weren't perfect about converting "I am" to "Mark is" without breaking a few rules along the way. We scratched our heads, went to Chipotle, and then decided that we could just change the input to say "Mark is" instead of "I am." Crisis averted.
While we were at it, we decided to make some other improvements. Here's what's shiny and new:
- Your friends' three most recent updates on the home page
- A brand new page to see all your friends' updates at once
- An RSS feed to put your friends' updates in your reader of choice
- The ability to subscribe to a friend's updates via SMS
- The ability to easily update status from your phone by sending an SMS to Facebook starting with the "@" character
Mark is a Technical Lead at Facebook. That's his job, not his status.
It may be an April 1st release, but this is no joke. We're giving away Thrift, a core part of our software infrastructure, as open source. If you follow this blog, then you probably already know about our use of the LAMP software stack and participation in other open source projects. But unless you work here, the first thing that probably springs to mind when it comes to "thrift" is that shady store with lots of smelly sweaters and shoulder-padded jackets.
Looking for deals on sweet retro outfits?
We can't actually help you with that.
We can't actually help you with that.
Sorry to disappoint, but this isn't that kind of thrift. Ours has a capital T, and it's a software framework that takes one simple programming language and performs not-so-simple code generation to create programs that communicate easily and efficiently across many programming languages. As it turns out, computer languages aren't so different from people languages. Some things are just faster, easier, or more elegant in one than another. Ever tried to say "I love you" in German? Apologies to our German users, but it's no "Je t'adore." Parsing RSS in C++? Sounds tedious. Building an in-memory search index in PHP? Unfathomable!
Why are we giving it away? Many large corporations are famous for keeping this type of tool under lock and key, but we think we stand to gain much more by collaborating with other smart companies and developers. Plus, we figured a lot of you would really enjoy an inside look at some of the interesting software problems we're working on every day.
So what are you waiting for? Download the source:
http://developers.facebook
Mark, a Technical Lead at Facebook, is reasonably confident that software is actually happier when written by computers, not people.
Why are we giving it away? Many large corporations are famous for keeping this type of tool under lock and key, but we think we stand to gain much more by collaborating with other smart companies and developers. Plus, we figured a lot of you would really enjoy an inside look at some of the interesting software problems we're working on every day.
So what are you waiting for? Download the source:
http://developers.facebook
Mark, a Technical Lead at Facebook, is reasonably confident that software is actually happier when written by computers, not people.
by Mark Slee Wednesday, January 10, 2007 at 12:45am
Uploaded via Facebook Mobile
Uploaded via Facebook MobileFacebook was invented to make sharing information with your friends easier and better. Mobile phones were invented for pretty much the same reason. People needed an easier and better way to get in touch with each other, and mobile phones made it happen.
We pondered this for a bit, quickly realized that pondering wasn't making anything awesome happen, and then started building Facebook Mobile. We're now happy to report that Facebook Mobile has services available for every Facebook user with a phone. Here's what they are:
We pondered this for a bit, quickly realized that pondering wasn't making anything awesome happen, and then started building Facebook Mobile. We're now happy to report that Facebook Mobile has services available for every Facebook user with a phone. Here's what they are:
- Mobile Web lets you surf Facebook on your phone just like the normal website… except that it actually fits on the screen.
- Mobile Uploads lets you send photos and notes to Facebook when you're out and about. We know from experience that really cool things are likely to happen when you're not sitting in front of a computer.
See what exciting things one finds when venturing out into the sunlight?
- Mobile Texts lets you send and receive Facebook messages, wall posts and pokes using text messages, plus you can update your status and search profiles from your phone. Remember that time when you needed to call someone, didn't have their number, but you knew that it was on Facebook? Yeah, that was the worst. Fear no more.
The new My Mobile page has lots more information and demos of these services. It's also where we'll be introducing new mobile products in the future. You just might find that your phone is good for more than talking. Like using Facebook.
Mark Slee, a Facebook engineer, is out exploring the world, and uploading all his discoveries directly to Facebook.
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