I'm getting lots of hits for my Facebook related writings (especially my recent post on whether Facebook was replacing e-mail) so why not add to the chatter some more?
So, to follow-up on the last two lists like this, here are yet five more ways I'd improve Facebook (post-apps version.)
(Oh, and if you haven't noticed, I've added a Facebook category and keyword tag. Isn't that pathetic? Sheesh.)
YET FIVE MORE WAYS TO IMPROVE FACEBOOK
1. I'm okay with allowing people to join and not upload a profile photo or sign up under their full name as that helps retain some privacy. But I really think people should be required to at least join a single network to help you find them. Right now, I'll do a search for somebody I know who has a common name like “Brian Smith” but get so many results, there's no way I can find him. If people had to join networks, at least I could try to narrow it by the city he used to live in or the school I know he attended.
2. Tone down the apps. Or at least provide a forum or ranking system of some type where people can come to a decision about the best ones. I think I've mentioned before that I was invited to use at least four different book-related applications within a couple weeks of the launch of Facebook Applications. But a social network application loses a lot of its advantages if your social network is fragmented in the common applications they use.
3. I wrote in one of my earlier lists that Facebook should make better use of their groups feature. Right now, as you as you join more than 5-6, it's hard to track what's happening with all of them. My idea to fix this is to put a tab at the top of the news feeds page that everybody sees when they log in that you can easily click on to see what's happening in your subscribed groups (Oh, and I do know you can go to your groups page to find something similar but I'm looking for greater convenience and accessibility than what they have now.)
4. The messenger application is pretty good as well but could be tweaked to be even better. Grouping messages from the same person, allowing attachments (if they went for a (nearly) unlimited size for this feature, they'd bring the wrath of the movie and music companies but instantly become the focus for online sharing in a way that existing sites like box.net and startups like Pownce are trying to be. Oh, and I've got 6 Pownce invites that I'm willing to give to the first people to e-mail me off-list. If you don't know, Pownce is a new social networking site by the founder of Digg that focuses on sharing information – files, messages, links, and events.)
5. I'd love if there was a way to see a person's complete Facebook history going back to the day they joined (right now, you can see the last month or so of activity via the mini-feed on their profile page.) You know they're keeping this information so why not make it available? My main use would be to see when people joined Facebook but I'm sure there could be other purposes – a timeline of changing profile pictures would be fun to see as would one that shows you a person's status updates over time.
Oh, and I thought this image from Mashable was funny and relevant to today's post… (click on the link to Mashable if this is too small to read)
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