Face off

I think Facebook are making a mistake. Making (limited) profiles of their
members available to the public will backfire.

Critics have argued that there is now a privacy problem and that Facebook is now
more like the Yellow Pages than a social networking site. There is a privacy
problem, but it is not this. MySpace profiles, for instance, have always been
public. This is what social networking sites are really about; it is why people
make so many 'Facebook friends' - they want people to see their profile.

So individuals don't really have a privacy problem. This move perhaps makes it
easier for individuals to make mistakes, like giving away their date of birth,
for example. But if people concerned about privacy can adjust their settings,
or not use facebook at all. Nobody expects or wants Facebook to be private.

However, what users do expect is that it is user-driven. Such is the promise of
Web 2.0. Advertising demeans this to some extent, by removing individuals'
choice about what is on the webpages they visit, or indeed compile. But we can
live with advertising: you don't get owt for nowt, not in this life.

But Facebook's latest move certainly undermines the site's user-driven nature.
Facebook believes it will be more popular if its content is more accessible -
this move is its own form of advertising. But the beauty of Facebook was that
it was not accessible. Users had to make friends with each other, join groups
and networks. There was an element of reciprocity in that you had to have your
own profile to use the site. People like this, and although it has not
disappeared, it has been threatened.

Think about this. I may want to know whether an old friend of mine is on
facebook. I search for them, but can't find them. Should I assume they are not
on the site? Perhaps they have adjusted their privacy settings. Oh well, I
won't bother joining; maybe they are on Friends Reuinited.

I don't care if Facebook falters. It serves a purpose, but if it is failing to
provide, somebody else will replace it. It's just a shame that corporate greed
leads sites like Facebook to put the interests of profit above the experiences
of members, without whom they would never have grown as such in the first
place.

CB