NEW YORK – Facebook
is revamping users' profiles to emphasize the pages for bands, books
and businesses that millions have become fans of on the world's largest
online social network.
Currently, users can list their activities,
interests, favorite music and TV shows as part of their profiles. But
links to Facebook "pages" for wine, your local library or the Lakers basketball team
would appear in a separate section lower down.
Beginning Monday, Facebook will start prompting users
to essentially combine the two. So if you listed Johnny Cash in the
"favorite music" section of your profile, Facebook will now ask you to
join his page, if you haven't become a fan of it already.
You'll be able to hide this connection on your
profile, but your name will still be listed on the Johnny Cash page as
one of the 1.2 million "people who like this" — what Facebook used to
term "fans." The same goes for users' home towns, education and work
places.
But there are more to Facebook pages than brands and
bands.
People like pickles, they like sleeping in and
641,653 people even like the Norwegian Olympic curling team's pants. So
for such things, Facebook is rolling out "community pages."
In many cases this page will include the Wikipedia entry on the
topic, along with Facebook posts from friends and others discussing it.
The page collects and displays posts by Facebook users mentioning
cooking. Users will see posts from their friends and from strangers who
haven't restricted public access to their updates.
But for now, there is no option for users to interact
with the cooking page, for example, by posting a message directly on
its "wall." Facebook said it will be asking people "who are passionate
about any of these topics" to sign up as a contributor, though the
company did not say when this would begin.
Facebook is also adding some privacy controls so that
users' friends can't see the list of other friends they have. Under a
new section called "friends, tags and connections," users will be able
to limit who can see what on their profile. Facebook had taken away this
option with its overhaul of privacy settings in December, but users and
privacy advocates have been asking for it back.