Facebook has always provided sophisticated privacy settings to allow people to share information, and control exactly who sees it—for example, "everyone in a network," "only friends," or even "no one". Now, a new design for the My Privacy page makes it even easier to use.

Beginning with the Privacy Overview page, you'll notice that the "Networks" section has been replaced with a "Profile" section. Also, next to each "Edit Settings" link, we have placed "sparklines"—small lines that serve as a visual representation of your privacy settings for a section or feature. The longer the line, the more open your settings.

Facebook users tend to be vocal with their suggestions about how to improve the site, and the growing set of international Facebook users is no different. Facebook users in countries outside the US have frequently asked us to add the ability to list screen names for multiple IM clients in the contact information section of their profiles. Today we launched that feature, to make it easier for all Facebook users to contact their friends online.

Facebook 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:

• 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.

We've spent a lot of time on this blog going over what's already been accomplished—what we've changed, launched, re-launched, etc. So we wanted to spend some time talking about what's coming up in the next little while. Here are some of the ideas we'll be toying with and thinking about in the coming year.

1. Networks—The network structure is one of Facebook's defining features, and we won't be taking that away. However, we will be trying to hone in on what makes networks on Facebook similar to those in the "real-world," and how to make them more relevant to each user's experience on the site.

2. Simplicity—There's a lot of stuff on Facebook. A lot of features. A lot of information. In the year to come, we'll be improving on the design of the site, making it easier to use and understand, while still providing all of the functionality and information we know and love.

3. Flexibility—Everyone wants something a little different out of Facebook. Some people post a new photo album daily. Some are importing their blog. Some need to keep in touch with a group of friends that are in ever widening geographic circles. Whatever it is you want to do with Facebook, we want to optimize your experience. We're going to be thinking more about the right ways to give you the controls you need over Facebook information, friends, and products.

So those are our big ideas for 2007. If you have any insight into them, please, let us know. Stay tuned for more feature enhancements and solutions in the coming year.


Katie Geminder, Director of Product, is so perfect she doesn't even need resolutions for improvement.