Today, Facebook announced that they are opening their doors to everyone. You no longer need to be part of any educational or corporate group to sign up. People can either get invited or sign up for themselves under the flattering category of “None of the Above”.

I fully expect this move to be met with extreme controversy–especially by those Facebook users who were protesting against the Mini-Feeds. I only have three words for these people: “wah wah wah!” Facebook still has, at its core, the same privacy functions as before, as Carolyn says on the Facebook blog:

This doesn’t mean that anyone can see your profile, however. Your profile is just as closed off as it ever was. Our network structure is not going away. College and work networks still require an authenticated email address to join. Only people in your networks and confirmed friends can see your profile.

As a Facebook user, I’m not worried about the sudden influx of new people. Sure, there are going to be the usual spammers and trolls which come along with any popular social networking site. But, I have my faith on Facebook’s privacy and friends system to work out the kinks. The bottom line is that I have had no privacy problems with Facebook, ever. That’s more than I can say about my friends’ experiences with MySpace.

Facebook has literally squeezed the college and high school market dry. In other words, they’ve hit the ceiling. So, the natural next step is to utilize their well-built system for a wider audience.

I for one am not afraid of the coming changes in Facebookland.

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Categories - Social Networking |