Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Cloud
    • Storage

    Facebook Smart Lists One-Up Google+ Circles

    By
    Clint Boulton
    -
    September 14, 2011
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      One feature that helped differentiate Google+ from Facebook is Circles, the function that lets users assign friends, family, colleagues and others to different groups.

      Facebook, which has long had Friend Lists and last fall launched its Groups feature to assign users to groups, launched more granular sharing tools to target specific groups of people with which to share information.

      “Want to see posts from your closest friends? Or perhaps you’d like to share a personal story with your family-without also telling all your co-workers. With improved Friend Lists, you can easily see updates from and share with different lists of friends,” explained Facebook product manager Blake Ross, who created the Mozilla Firefox browser.

      One of the pains involved with lists is, well, creating them and keeping them up-to-date. Ross and his team created “Smart lists,” which create themselves and stay up-to-date based on profile information a user’s friends have in common.

      Facebook’s Smart Lists include work, school, family and city. Friends who attended the same college or work for the same company would instantly appear on a smart list, which will have its own News Feed of photos, status updates and other posts from the people on the list. Users may also manually add or subtract names from their smart lists.

      Also new to Friend Lists are close friends and acquaintances lists, which will show status updates and pictures from best friends in one place. Users must manually populate these lists, similar to the way they add or subtract contacts to Circles on Google+.

      To facilitate sharing among users on lists, Ross made it clear that people on lists will be able to see each other’s names. “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,” Ross said.

      No doubt, users will try to push for some privacy measure concerning this feature.

      Facebook has also improved its friend suggestions feature, which would help users who may have inadvertently left some friends off their lists. Moreover, when a user adds someone as a friend or confirms a friendship request, the user will be able to add the friend to any of their existing lists.

      Sometimes users don’t want to share information with others, even if they want to be friends with them, on Facebook. The social network is offering a Restricted list. Users on this list will only see another users’ public posts. This is particularly helpful for users who are friends with their boss or other superiors and colleagues on Facebook.

      Facebook may or may not have been prompted by the Google+ Circles construct to improve its Friend Lists. Google+ has an acquaintance Circle, though “close friends” is a new category.

      Moreover, Google+ doesn’t have automatic listing functionality-yet. While some will claim Facebook is copying Google+ functionality, it’s quite likely Google+ will add its own form of smart lists to make friending and sharing information easier.

      With Facebook having 750 million users worldwide, compared with 30 million or so Google+ users, it’s much more important for Google to keep pace with Facebook than vice versa.

      Clint Boulton

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Cloud

      IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

      James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
      I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×