26 Comments »Yesterday afternoon Facebook posted about how the site is growing beyond regional networks and how networks will no longer be part of the privacy settings. The rationale is that the company has grown beyond it’s previous boundaries and as such, “these networks too often represent large geographical areas—sometimes entire countries—that no longer accurately reflect people’s real-world connections”.
While I personally understand the challenges of managing geographic data, it seems strange that Facebook would eliminate regional networks. Yes, managing the countless regional networks that exist in the world is not easy, but ultimately this was one of Facebook’s greatest values. As I’ve described on countless occasions, one of Facbeook’s greatest opportunities is through leveraging regional data to optimize search results. Eliminating these regions doesn’t really make much sense.
Paul McDonald writes on the Facebook blog, “If you’ve ever created a group or event and set it so that only members of a certain regional network could join, that group or event will now become open to everyone.” What?!?! Doesn’t it make sense to limit an event to a specific region? Then again, Paul is most likely referencing the visibility settings of that event. In theory this makes a lot of sense as long as Facebook leverages this network data for setting geographical regions.
On Twitter one of the greatest weaknesses is that the site doesn’t differentiate between “Washington, D.C.” and “Washington DC”. The result is that developers need to build geographic filters that find similar locations and also account for misspellings. As I understand it, the networks are not being removed, instead they will simply have no impact on privacy and visibility settings. While scaling geographic networks is extremely challenging, I believe it’s one of the most important features of Facebook.
It’s important for the company to localize information, including geographic information, and include that data to help create more relevant search results. While Paul McDonald states that the “information will continue to appear in search results”, I hope it doesn’t mean that Facebook won’t continue expanding their geographically relevant features.
It’s about time! The privacy settings based on Geographical Networks make no sense. I live in New York and that network has hundreds of thousands of people! Give me one reason why I would want to set privacy settings for that network.
I think geographical networks should be eliminated all-together because they are useless and I am glad Facebook is headed in that direction.
Regarding people’s concern on finding people on Facebook based on geographical data, I don’t think it is Facebook’s primary goal to let people look for “friends” by name (and narrow down results by geographical location). Facebook “friends” are supposed to be people that you know in real life and they should be in your address book with an email address. To find them on Facebook you can use the Friend Finder feature that uses your address book.
Raphael: People (at least young people) don’t really use email anymore. If I’m searching for a friend, geographical data helps a lot, especially if there are more than one person with the same name. I DO know them in real life, but that doesn’t mean I have their email address!
I will have to disagree with you James regarding the use of email. It is still the primary way to communicate online. In fact it is a prerequisite to opening a Facebook account.
The point is that Facebook is not a website to do “people search”. It’s a tool to share information among people you have established a trustworthy connection outside of the website.
I agree with Raphael: if you don’t know an email address, then how do you know you’re contacting the “real” John or Jane Doe in whom you’re interested, or someone [claiming to have] or [having] the same name? An email address is a credential, of sorts.
Friend finder and friend suggestion have been essential for me to connect to most of my friends on facebook, but email is just the primary way to get spammed. Google (wave) is trying to get meaning to email again, but… as it is it’s just a mess needing a fix.
Raphael, the point James is trying to make, I believe, is that people will often add friends on facebook before they exchange email address. ie: the flow is: Meet someone –> Add to facebook –> maybe some months later exchange email/im address.
But I totally agree, privacy setting based on geographic region is useless. In the UK the London netowrk is the only one in the South of England and I don’t want all of London coming to my parties
then why are you so quick , privacy. hackers. scammers, and viruses - to block my acct because of wall posts??????
when so many other issues , and people posting alot more than I ever do — to threaten suspension ????
Agree with James. As a 24 yo I barely know any of my friends’ email addresses but I’m connected to them all on FB. Especially friends met through work/school, it is easier to simply search their name on FB than to exchange email addresses. The only people I exchange email correspondence with are my parents and grandmother - the rest of my email is work-related, receipts for online purchases, confirmation emails, or junk.
This is the worst idea ever. If they were going to eliminate regional networks, why did they bother making them in the first place? I moved a lot as a kid and never went to college so the ONLY network I can use it regional. Plus if I am looking someone up who’s name is “joe smith”…it would be IMPOSSIBLE to find him without looking up a specific region to narrow it down. Am I really expected to sit there and look through 10000 pages of “Joe smiths”??
They should just get rid of networks ALL TOGETHER. They are too busy trying to be different from myspace, that they are just making BAD changes..not good ones. So far myspace is still the winner out of all these sites. You can search people easy, no sign up required, no stupid networks…so much better.
I’m done with facebook. Aside from the reasons listed, they’ve messed so many things up already. The friends list pages are gone, friends are no longer in alphabetical order so it’s hard to look someone up….it’s so complicated for no good reason at all. Eliminate networks, make it just a simple site with private profiles, or public profiles. Until you fix your stuff, good bye facebook.
And regarding what someone said about facebook only being about befriending people in your address book ..that’s not true. Facebook is also about reconnecting with people you haven’t seen in years. To find old friends who you lost touch with.
Here’s a crazy idea: why not let users choose their OWN networks instead of having them forced upon you! I live an hour from Manchester, NH, but Facebook makes me use it as a network! I can’t even choose a network of a place I actually spend time in (Boston, Portland, ME, both as close as Manchester).
This is really all about Facebook ending all the default privacy settings to allow data mining. You know, the whole reason we all left myspace in the first place.
And I agree with the above, I know very few of my myspace/Facebook friends’ email addresses. I found those contacts primarily through my friends’ pages whose emails I DO have. Or had…many are outdated now. How about FB providing a central contact file I could download to CSV? Pretty please? Just of my friends’ public account info? I can’t even cut and paste email from FB…
Leon has an interesting point. Can only those who attend/attended high school, college, grad school or hold/held a job (with an e-mail address) be a part of a network? To me that is disturbingly elitist.
Erik spoke about how he was “forced” to join a network that did not represent what he considers his home region. No one is forced to join a network on Facebook. I have plenty of friends who have decided to have “No Network.” Joining a regional network, or any of the networks, is a choice or an option. It is frustrating when Facebook introduces an option and then takes this option away.
Also many people in this thread spoke about using networks as a way of finding friends. To me, the function of regional networks are just as useful in friend searches as college or high school networks. However, I think networks are more significant than merely for searching. Many people view their networks with a sense of pride, sort of like being a fan of a sports team. I’ll give several examples. Many high school seniors, excited for their coming continuing education, await getting their new e-mail addresses in the mail so that they can proudly join their new school’s network. My parents’ friends join their college’s network, even if they graduated from that school decades ago. Their college network acts as a sort of relic from the past, or a piece of nostalgia. Regional networks can work the same way. I have many friends who have recently immigrated to this country who are members of their birth country’s network. This is not actually where they currently live but it is a symbol of their identity. In short: there are multiple and variant reasons for joining a network, not only limiting to usefulness in searches or privacy settings.
Facebook cannot offer enough networks to fit everyone’s preferences. That is impossible. It could, however, get rid of networks all together. Some would not bat an eyelash at such a change; others would be furious if the network feature were to be taken away. (This returns to my earlier point about taking away what has already been given.)
Getting rid of networks might abolish the “elitism” factor about which I first spoke. At the same time the universal “No Network” might jeopardize the flavor and spice that separates Facebook from other social networking sites such as MySpace. It is important to remember where Facebook got it’s roots: a social networking hub for college students. ( To join, members were required to have a college network that was obtained from an e-mail address). Would Facebook be where it is today without it’s historic network feature?
Facebook should just bring back the regional networks. Plain and simple. Let’s be honest now, no one has really appreciated any recent updates (especially Old vs. New facebook), and frankly Facebook should just stop dictating the way we use this site.
At least ask your users what they would prefer before making a major change such as this?! How is taking away regional networks fair for people who never went to college?!
I think it’s terrible that they deleted regions. I have many friends in different countries and sometimes I want to write all my friends in one country and I can’t because I CAN’T LOOK FOR THEM using the regional choice. This is terrible… What a terrible IDEA!!! I don’t understand why… I really don’t.
I strongly believe that is deeply bad they deleted regions. I have many friends in different places abroad and I usually write all of them, and now I can’t because I can’t look for them using the regional choice, like others neither. WHAT A DREADFUL IDEA!!! This decision IT’S TOTALLY UNFAIR!!!…
If you have an email, with an address book, with your friends in it. Why do you need Facebbook?
I’m going to have to say . . . the guy at the top (Raphael maybe? His name doesn’t show) is completely deluded when it comes to how college students and other young people (the original, intended group around whose needs Facebook is designed) interact and build social networks.
I’ve known people for YEARS and still have to ask what their email address is if I want to send them something, because I don’t use email for informal communications with my friends.
Maybe that’s how different groups of people (older adults in his case, it would appear) interact online, but it’s stupid and ignorant to assume that the way your social peers do something is the “right” or “correct” way to do it, especially in a medium so fluid as the internet.
I think geographical networks were a great idea. There are hundreds of people with some common names, and geographical networks allow you to focus your searches when you’re looking for someone you’ve just met.
When a client of mine signed up for Facebook, she selected a Regional Network. Since that time, she has moved but her current city isn’t being picked up as her Regional Network. Does anyone know how to remove the Regional Network City. When she goes to Networks, it says she doesn’t belong to any Networks. When users search on her name, she still shows up under that initial regional network. This sounds like a FB bug!
Hello,
Bring back the regional networks!!! It was really nice and even helpful! Now the most users are not registered to a network.
that is bullshit some people looks like still in regional network, new users dont. that’s not fair, confusing and f..ng stupid. it’s not equal!!!
Please bring back the regional networks and allow us to have several at once. I’d like to have the region where I grew up, places that we lived while husband was in the military and where we live now. Please bring back the regional network.
Hi,
yes please re-introduce regional networks! First this could be made the old way, but then a better coverage of countries/regions could be made, e.g. a hierarchical way (say UK/South England/Somerset). Additionally many people (like me) have their life split between two or three regions, and many “local friends” in each, so it would be nice e.g. to have a primary regional network plus, say up to two secondary regional networks. - not necessarily all in the same country. My own example: I was raised in the South of France in a place where I still spend most of my holidays, work and live near Paris about 6 months per year, and usually work during the winter months at a Mexican university. I actually have 3 regional networks. When I give a concert in Paris I won’t clutter the boxes of my Mexican friends! I also agree that FB is most often the primary way to meet on line people I know in real life, and then we switch to e-mail only in specific cases. It helps a lot to know the regional network!
I am a pretty skilled Facebook stalker, and this severely limits my stalking ability. This chick that stiffed me on a Craigslist deal is on Facebook, and I want to see if she has recent activity on her computer so I can verify that she’s had ample time to check her email, instead of being out of town for a year. I used to be able to join the reginoal network and do that…this sucks. So does MySpace.
I would like the regional networks back!
Why would all the million FB users not studying anymore and not working in one of the few big companies entitled to have a network be denied the right to join a community?
And personnaly i found the networks very useful to make selective connections with people from a specific area.
For example :
Imagine someone learning Cantonese an Mandarin Chinese. Just being in the Hong Kong networks allowed you to make friends with Cantonese speaking people, who would help you with the language, just because of the fact that your privacy settings opened selectively your profile to users from that specific area.
And just by being in the Taiwan network, your profile could be visited by its members, increasing your chance to multiply your contacts from there too.
Having only the option to limit your privacy setting to either your friends only, or the entire world without exeptions is a stupidity!
If you don’t want your school as your network and your work is not on the network’s list then what do you use for a network?!!!