"Lists have existed for several years, but you've told us how time-consuming it is to organize lists for different parts of your life and keep them up to date," shares Ross.
Who knew that a day would come when social networking giant Facebook will get intimidated by features offered by a newbie in social networking world. First, Facebook's not-so-successful attempt to introduce video chatting feature, pretty much like Google+'s Hangout and now 'smart lists' which seems to be a desperate attempt copy 'Circles', one of the most appreciated features in Google Plus.
Google has a disastrous history when it comes to social networking, but their latest project Google Plus has become the fastest growing social networking site. Google Plus was launched in June'11 and has more than 25 million users already. Although, how active these users are, is a debatable issue.
Coming back to 'Smart Lists', Facebook will automatically categorize some of your friends into:
- Work
- School
- Family
- City
This is done based on your and your friend's profile info, it will categorize based on common school, workplace, city or surname. "If you're having a grad party or a college reunion, you can easily share photos with just your college friends, without bothering other people you know." explains Ross.
Other than this, Facebook will also offer:
Close Friends List: You can add your best friends to this list and will be able to see all their posts in your News Feed; you can also choose to view only your close friends' updates in your News Feed. You can also receive notifications every time your best friends post an update.
Acquaintances List: This list is for those friends whom you hardly know, and adding them in this list will feature them less often in your News Feed. Although you will be able to see major changes in their lives, like when they get married or join a new company.
Restricted Lists: There are certain people with whom you can't risk sharing everything on Facebook, your boss or your mom for example. You can add them to restricted list and they will be able to see only your Public posts.
"Unlike your smart lists for your work,. school, family and city, we don't create Close Friends and Acquaintances lists for you. Since these types of relationships are unique, it's important for you to decide who goes in your Close Friends, Acquaintances or Restricted Lists - if you use them at all." shares Blake Ross.
Further adding, "The people on the lists you've shared with will be able to see each other's names. This gives them more context. For example, if I see that a post is shared with my five closest friends, I am much more likely to comment freely on it than I would be if I didn't know who else could see the post."
Facebook also promises to bring you better suggestions for your smart lists, Close Friends, Acquaintances, and your customized lists. While confirming someone as your friend or adding someone, you will be able to categorize them into a list of your choice.
Overall, it seems to be quite an effort from Facebook and I am sure there are many users who will find this feature incredibly useful. But I would have appreciated Facebook's efforts much more if they hadn't come up with this after Google+'s Circles feature. Facebook for me 'used' to come up with original ideas, but they seem to be losing that charm now.
Nevertheless, it's a sigh of relief that finally I will be able to share selective information with my friends on Facebook; without having to spend mind boggling hours customizing my privacy settings. What do you say?
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