While sending messages this afternoon I noticed a new feature that Facebook has added. When you type a URL in a message it crawls the URL that you entered and looks for the first 4 images that it can find. I’m assuming that the point of this feature is to attach the image to your message. Currently it doesn’t work. Additionally, in Internet Explorer 7 the images from the site that you entered don’t even display. Facebook has been accused of launching a number of faulty features. This is another one to add to the list. I have always had high standards for Facebook but this new feature does not hold up to those standards. You would imagine that they would have tested this out on a beta site prior to launching it. Oh well! I have a feeling that this is connected to Facebook’s decision to add images and videos to wall postings. Pete Cashmore argued that this will make the site more like MySpace. I have to agree. What are they thinking? Conversely, as I covered previously the Super Wall application adds the ability to post other media to people’s walls and has become extremely popular (over 2.5 million users have added it making it the 12th most popular Facebook application). Do you think this will add a lot of value to the Facebook experience or that it will just pollute the site?
Update
So apparently this feature isn’t new. I was just slow to recognize this. Given that it isn’t new, it is even worse that it still doesn’t work!
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nah it was always like that?
Comment by Jesse Thomas — July 25, 2007 @ 9:46 am
Really? Maybe I missed that before. It definitely doesn't work I know that much. Whatever the feature is. If it isn't new that's even worse!
Comment by Nick O'Neill — July 25, 2007 @ 9:48 am
Really? Maybe I missed that before. It definitely doesn't work I know that much. Whatever the feature is. If it isn't new that's even worse!
Comment by Nick O'Neill — July 25, 2007 @ 10:48 am
yea, that feature's been there for a while…
Comment by charlotte — July 25, 2007 @ 11:48 am
Guess I'm a little slow today
Comment by Nick O'Neill — July 25, 2007 @ 11:49 am
it's ok…u're working hard…
Comment by charlotte — July 25, 2007 @ 11:50 am
yea, that feature's been there for a while…
Comment by charlotte — July 25, 2007 @ 12:48 pm
Guess I'm a little slow today
Comment by Nick O'Neill — July 25, 2007 @ 12:49 pm
it's ok…u're working hard…
Comment by charlotte — July 25, 2007 @ 12:50 pm
Yeah–feature's definitely been around since "Posted Items" was introduced. Also, it doesn't necessarily only find four–it's gotten up to 8 for me. I think it just depends on how many pictures there are on the site. Sometimes it picks up weird images poorly designed sites use in the site design but appear to be normal jpeg images. It usually works pretty well for me, so maybe there's a temporary problem that they're working to fix. It always works for videos…
Comment by Sam — July 25, 2007 @ 12:57 pm
I think the 'as you type' in a generic message part is new. Grabbing the title, description & images has always been part of the sharing functionality as far as I can remember.
Comment by Colin Carmichael — July 25, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Yeah–feature's definitely been around since "Posted Items" was introduced. Also, it doesn't necessarily only find four–it's gotten up to 8 for me. I think it just depends on how many pictures there are on the site. Sometimes it picks up weird images poorly designed sites use in the site design but appear to be normal jpeg images. It usually works pretty well for me, so maybe there's a temporary problem that they're working to fix. It always works for videos…
Comment by Sam — July 25, 2007 @ 1:57 pm
I think the 'as you type' in a generic message part is new. Grabbing the title, description & images has always been part of the sharing functionality as far as I can remember.
Comment by Colin Carmichael — July 25, 2007 @ 2:08 pm
nah it was always like that?
Comment by Jesse Thomas — July 25, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
that videos and images in the wall posts will make fb look like myspace is a superficial comparison. it's like comparing flatland to a slice of 3d space and calling them similar.
Comment by Minger — July 25, 2007 @ 7:34 pm
that videos and images in the wall posts will make fb look like myspace is a superficial comparison. it's like comparing flatland to a slice of 3d space and calling them similar.
Comment by Minger — July 25, 2007 @ 8:34 pm
[...] with intelligent commentary – it’s not just mindless Facebook fanboyism, in other words. See this post, for instance, about Facebook’s propensity for releasing poorly tested new features on a [...]
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