When Facebook launched the new Facebook Pages system, some people wondered if the level of spam was about to increase. Additionally, in the past week Facebook added a new setting to the application privacy settings that enables users to disable email notifications. Some suggested that this was a new feature that enabled applications to send emails, but in fact it is simply a new protection for users. Applications have been able to send emails to users since the platform launched back in May.

Just like Facebook Beacon, application emails are an opt-out program. This means you are automatically approving applciations to send you emails when you install them on your account. Honestly, application spam has not been a serious issue for me. The only application that I’ve seen send email notifications is “Hot or Not.” Any application that starts spamming me with emails will quickly be removed.

What confuses me about the new Facebook offerings (Beacon and Pages) is how Facebook chose to add completely new segments within Facebook rather than expanding upon their existing offerings. Why would Facebook create Pages when they could have simply expanded Facebook group features? Eventually users will have 20 pages of privacy and various other configuration settings. Are you finding the new features to add more confusion to your experience on Facebook?

Facebook Page Updates

Application Email Settings