Facebook unveils new features

Facebook New Features

Leading social networking site Facebook rolled out a new grouping feature and another one that allows personal information of its 500 million users to be archived.

Facebook said that the new groups feature will be available to all its members “relatively quickly.”

“We’re not being hyperbolic when we say (groups) is going to be a fundamental shift in how people use Facebook,” Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during a press conference.

Zuckerberg refused to give any comment about ‘The Social Network’, the film about the company and its founders, but he has said earlier that most of the movie is “inaccurate.”

The grouping feature will allow users to share comments, pictures, and links with others based on interests and relationships. Users would be able to organize groups by work, family and other categories. It is most suited for groups of up to 25 people but hundreds can be accommodated, Zuckerberg said.

This new feature revamps the old way Facebook treated groupings by letting users make “lists.” But Zuckerberg said “no one wants to make lists,” citing that only 5 percent of Facebook users utilize the old feature.

“You can order your life by groups. We’re not building a social product but a social platform,” said Facebook VP of product Chris Cox.

Another notable new feature is a tool that allows users to download copies of their information on Facebook. Yet another was a dashboard for games, tests, and other programs running on the site.

Facebook is also rumored to be in talks with Skype for tighter integration with its communications platform.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Thursday October 07 2010, 8:20 AM EDT. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0