Monday, January 17, 2011

Three new features coming soon to Facebook

Facebook announced three new features that will dramatically alter the way we interact on Facebook including an overhaul of its Groups feature, a new dashboard for apps management and a new "Download Your Information" feature.

"Groups" overhauled
Under Facebook's "Groups" overhaul, users will now be able to add other users to Facebook Groups just like they would if they were tagging a friend in a photo. Zuckerberg noted that users do not want to create lists of friends to add to their Facebook Groups. So instead of one user creating a group and then picking who is allowed into the group, groups will now create social groups.

According to Justin Shaffer, product manager, groups will also have access to group chat, group doc editing and other Facebook apps.

Connected Apps Dashboard
Tools I've mentioned in the past like HootSuite - which allows users to manage Facebook accounts - and BannerSnack - which allows users to log in using a Facebook account - use Facebook apps to serve their purpose.

Now, Facebook has created a dashboard to help users manage the apps they connect to and even restrict the amount of time those apps can access your Facebook account.

Download Your Information
As Zuckerberg pointed out, users control the information they put into Facebook but there has never been any real way to pull something out of the social network...until now.

"Download Your Information" will be a key addition to Facebook users who want to take information from their Facebook profile and add it to a profile on another social platform. Now users will be able to download all forms of Facebook data into a .zip file. This marks a much more "open" path for Facebook in that users can now leave Facebook and take their entire past (as appears on Facebook) with them.

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