12 Comments »Last week I wrote that Facebook was beginning to phase out friend details from the site. It now appears official and according to Facebook, “the friend details that were already established on your account have been converted to Friend Lists.” If you go look at your friend lists there will now be lists that you hadn’t created as the company tries to eliminate this feature all together.
While you can still enter the information after you’ve approved a friend, it may no longer be accessible in the near future. Facebook states, “any extra data you filled out after checking the box [which confirms your friendship] may have been lost.” The concept of friend lists makes sense for organization purposes as well as managing privacy settings but notes were also extremely useful. Facebook is rapidly turning into the personal relationship management system of choice.
Unfortunately there are many features that still aren’t present that would be most useful one of those features being a modified version of the friend details feature. Any decent contact management system has a field for notes about how you know a user and Facebook should be no exception. A number of users on our previous post mentioned that friend details were now missing and wanted to see the feature brought back.
That’s a normal reaction for most Facebook users though considering that a large number of people on Facebook are resistant to change. Would you find it useful to be able to keep notes about your relationships in Facebook?
I think the Friend Details feature always had a lot of potential to which it did not live up.
Facebook failed to find a useful application for it. At the beginning, the site toyed with the idea of a social timeline which was then later removed since it didn’t provide much value to the user.
I would have liked to see it featured when looking at mutual friends. (ie You are at Danny’s FB profile and see that you both have Suzy as a mutual friend. At that point, Facebook should tell you how Danny and Suzy know each other.)
I do believe that Facebook lists are an efficient way to segement friends. I set up my lists when that feature became available and now whenever I friend ANYONE, they immediately get put onto a list.
friend details were awesome. it reminded me how I knew specific people, now i dont even remember so I deleted those people.
There’s a neat third-party application for Facebook called SocialFly that does a nice job with contact management. Lets you prioritize relationships, set reminders, record likes and dislikes, and even keep track of favours. Now if it only worked for Fan Pages…
Lame. Why did I go through and add ‘Friend Details’ for all my baby-mama’s if Facebook is only going to get rid of that sort functionality?
Looks like I’ll have to make a new “List” to manage my child-support checks.
Facebookers are resistent to change, you said it. Do they really think they will access Facebook the same way they do now in 20 or 30 years. Roll with the times Facebookers.
I don’t think Facebookers are any more resistant to change than the average population…I think what it is is EXCESSIVE change. Really, Facebook just can’t settle in for even a little while. It’s almost impossible to keep up with it all. They’re taking something that should always be inherently simple and over complicating it on an almost daily basis. That’s not “change,” that’s overkill.
We’ve lost a feature here - the ability to remind ourselves when and where we met, or how we know someone. I’m fairly annoyed about this to be honest - I had spent time making sure all my friends and acquaintances were listed properly, and now those details have just been thrown away
Hey everyone,
if you want to take the time to find your friend details, there is a loophole to get to them for now.
1. You have to go to your friend’s profile page
2. In the “Friends” box on the left side of the person’s profile, there is a “See All” link. Right click on this link and choose “open in new tab.” (You HAVE to do this, because opening it in a new window will not allow you to see friend details)
3. On the drop down menu “Show” scroll down to the third section of options. This section features all of your friend’s old Friend Details in various categories like: housemates, coursemates, classmates, coworkers, club group or teammates, summer/abroad friends, travel buddies, family members, friends met through friends, and the FAMOUS random friends.
The bad news: The dropdown menu does no longer show the social categories like “travel buddies”, “housemates”, “met randomly”,…
But: Facebook still has not deleted the Information (yet?).
To view it you can install this script
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/34067
and do exactly what Amanda has written in the previous post.
Instead of the dropdown menu the user script adds clickable links for each category.
Instead of using that drop down, you can search for your own name in your friend’s friend list, then click on the small box icon on the right side of your name and it will show the information
Okay so what should I do.
I REALLY want to CHANGE or delete my ‘friend details’. Considering I was(key word there) in a relationship when you could still use that fb feature and now since we have separated I would like it to change. If anyone view’s either mine or his page of friends it says that we are still dating. How can I fix this? Please help.
*I am NOT talking about our ‘relationship status’. I am definitely talking about our ‘friend details’.
Why did you remove friend details???!?
As many have said before me, I can´t see any information about my friends now, it was much better before. Shame on you who has deleted this feature, it was the easiest way to see how you did know different persons. Please ask the users before you do changes like that, some of us perhaps would have friends details as it was before, please let us have the opportunity to do so. And why can´t we add details later on??