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When you log into Facebook today, your “home” page is going to look a little different - again. This time, at the top you’ll find an apology from Mark Zuckerberg; I encourage you to read through it.

The gist of it is - you now have more privacy controls over your News Feed, and it comes in the form of being able to choose which things you do that will show up on other people’s News Feed. While you can’t change everything yet (they coded these new privacy settings from scratch in what, 4 days?), you do have more control now, and it should help quell the storm of Facebook naysayers. The new privacy page for News Feed and Mini-Feed also lists things that will never be published on a Feed, and I think you should check that list out before crying foul at Facebook.

Personally, I removed wall posts. I think others seeing what I write on other people’s walls everyday is a little much. However, I left everything else. I think it’s interesting to see when people add new photos, or when someone comments on a photo, or when someone adds something to a list of favorites, or when one (or more) of my friends joins a group, etc. Facebook has always been about community, about having a community of your friends, and I think that these kinds of updates on and about my community are wonderful.

I would encourage you to not just uncheck everything on the News Feed Privacy list because you’re unhappy with Facebook. Mark is right in that these controls should have been there from the beginning, but don’t kill the system just because they did it wrong from the start. He admitted the other day that this is a new feature, and as such it’s still early in development - new settings for Facebook are constantly popping up, and it’s only a matter of time before we have more feature-complete settings for News Feed and Mini-Feed.

So, with all that said, go check out the new privacy settings for News Feed and Mini-Feed, and keep in mind that your friends, if they really are your friends, probably do care about your life, and would (at least in general) like to know what you’re up to.

There seems to be a good bit of opposition to the new Facebook, and it’s understandable - almost everything you do is saved and served up in the “News Feed” - and you feel like “big brother is watching” and you can’t make a move without it being known.

Consider this. That’s the way Facebook has been from day 1. Your personal information, served up on your very own profile page, for anyone that you approve to view it (you do have privacy options on Facebook - very good ones too). So, in a sense, Facebook hasn’t changed at all. Facebook, and anyone that has had access to view your profile (and the info on it) has been able to see everything that is now shown on the “News Feed”.

What has changed is the way you use Facebook. Facebook used to be somewhat of an encyclopedia, with searchable entries (profiles). You could find what you wanted, as long as you had permission to, and knew what you were looking for. Now, you still have that power, and still with the permissions limitations, it’s just that you don’t have to go looking. It used to be that when you clicked on your “My Friends” list, and you saw that so-and-so updated their profile, it might take you awhile to figure out that they added a new book to their favorite books list. Now, you don’t have to go looking - it’s served up for you, ala “News Feeds”.

I, and others that use RSS for reading news (that would include those of you subscribed to email updates from my blog), are used to this format of news - news that is pushed to you, instead of you having to go look for it. In this way, I receive hundreds of news stories and updates every day from sites I’ve subscribed to. I don’t read all of them - that would take way too much time - but I would never be able to keep up with all the sites I like to read if I had to individually visit each site everyday, on the chance that “maybe there’s something new”. The new Facebook format isn’t so different. You are friends with people, and have therefore automatically been “subscribed”, so to speak, to updates your friends make on Facebook - governed by the privacy rules set by your friends.

Yeah, it might seem a little excessive now (even I think that wall posts don’t need to be on there), but I think with some time, these new features will be just as liked as Photos, Pulse, and the other Facebook upgrades - and with some time, Facebook will work out the kinks. I will point out though, that you can control what is shown to your friends about what you do. On your profile, in the “Mini-Feed”, each entry has an “x” to the right. If there’s something you do that you just don’t want people to know about, you can click that “x”, and it will disappear from your Mini-Feed, and it won’t show up on other people’s News Feeds.

Michael Arrington [TechCrunch] tells it like it is:

If this feature had been part Facebook since the beginning, their users would be screaming if Facebook tried to remove it. It’s a powerful way to quickly get lots of information about people you care about, with easy settings to remove that information for privacy reasons. No one can see anything that they couldn’t see yesterday. It’s just being distributed more efficiently.

I also applaud Facebook for launching a product clearly designed to reduce total page views in the network by no longer forcing users to go to their friends pages for updates. That shows serious long term vision and dedication to the principle of facilitating communication among its users.

Personally, I like the new format. It allows me to see who added one of my favorite books to their list of favorite books, who joined a group that I’m in, who added new photos (and which photos are new)… in short, it allows me to easily find common ground with my friends on Facebook. “Big brother”, if he exists, has been watching from day 1. The new Facebook changes nothing about that.

Sound off in the comments.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 24 hours (and with the rain we’re getting here, I wouldn’t blame you), you’ve probably heard by now - Steve Irwin died yesterday. He was speared in the heart by the barb of a sting ray, as he was filming a new documentary on dangerous sea creatures. He most likely died instantly, as a sting ray’s poison causes blood circulation to stop, and there is no known antidote.

Now, what we really need is someone to make a movie about a documentary about Steve Irwin’s wife tracking down and killing that sting ray.

Rest in peace, Steven Irwin.

Australian web news:
The Courier Mail
The Daily Telegraph
The Herald Sun

Australian Local News [via YouTube]

Steve Irwin [via Wikipedia]

www.crocodilehunter.com

Currently Playing in iTunes
Sister Golden Hair (lyrics)
America: The Complete Greatest Hits
By America
 
I’ve played this song 3 times.

Well, I’ve been in Abilene a week or so now… not much has changed. New classes, new living space (Campus Apts.), but otherwise, not much is different from last semester.

I have discovered what I miss the most about the Metroplex… KLUV 98.7 FM. I love my oldies, and Abilene just doesn’t have an equal.

Confusion is running rampant in my life right now. If it could be personified, I’d say it’s like Trogdor, except instead of burninating the countryside, he’s confusinating my life.

On some things, it’s just a little cloudy, but on others, it’s like I’ve got one foot on one side, and one on the other - but the ground is splitting, and I’ve got to jump to one side or the other. I need clarity, now more than ever.