Facebook "Relents." No One Surprised.

If you've read my post from yesterday, you'll see that I'm calling bullshit on facebook. In my opinion, they're using the privacy issue to leave room for compromise with the ultimate intent of keeping the program in the way they originally intended still intact. And I'm more sure than ever now that one day later the new Beacon has already been rolled out. Either they're the fastest coders on the planet, or the expectation of change was already there, and the work had already been done. The latter makes much more sense.

So Beacon lets you opt out for good (but only on a case by case basis, which still sort of sucks, but is on par with how they handle application notifications), and removes the automatic feed posting of partner purchases by requiring an opt in to post. While it's probably not all the way there, I still think it's a useful program. I like to know where my friends are shopping because it makes it easier for me to find new places. It's that simple. More granular control of the program will be helpful and productive, but I think facebook is probably just taking the baby steps toward what the future of the web will look like anyway.

And honestly, I'd rather those steps be taken by facebook rather than Microsoft, or GE, or the US Government, or whatever. For some reason, facebook's independence makes me feel a little more comfortable with the process.

(and yes, I know microsoft now owns a part of facebook, but I don't think it's enough to consider them the major decision maker. more like an influential bystander)

Mack's got an interesting take on the myspacing of facebook. Although these days it's seems to be just as much the facebooking of myspace.