Well it looks like it has finally happened. The dreaded “is” present in status updates that people have complained about for the past few months is now finally being removed. Well, it appears that it will become optional. According to Facebook’s platform status feed:
Starting with tonight’s push, any API calls that return information about users’ status messages, including FQL and users.getInfo, will be changing slightly. The return value will now start with a verb, so prepending “is ” is no longer required. So in order to construct a full status message it is now $name + ‘ ‘ + $message, instead of $name + ‘ is ‘ + $message. Additionally, users.setStatus will be able to avoid prepending the word “is ” by passing in an additional parameter: “status_includes_verb”. If you pass in true for that parameter, it signals to us that we should *not* prepend the word “is ” to the status you give us. In a few, we will delete that parameter and change the default behavior to be that you must include your own verb.
What does all this mean? Not much aside from the fact that you will soon be able to write more creative status updates. Instead of updates such as “Nick is back to work today,” you will be able to write things such as “Nick thinks that changes to the status updates are good for everyone.” The changes have not appeared to go live yet but I have received a few messages from people claiming that they can now backspace through the “is” in their status. I wasn’t able to do the same thing so perhaps Facebook is simply testing it out with a few users.
Are you an avid Facebook status user?
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I think that's too bad. I always have fun trying to bend what I want say around the is – the more creative I have to be, the better. Just one more thing that dilutes the uniqueness of FB.
Comment by Colin Carmichael — November 20, 2007 @ 6:42 am
That's true … I kind of enjoyed that as well. I like that it's better integrated with Twitter though.
Comment by Nick O'Neill — November 20, 2007 @ 8:13 am
I can confirm that I was able to create a status message that did not start with "is" last night. Today, however, it's not letting me. I presume the change has only been made on certain servers, or perhaps they have rolled it back.
Comment by Ryan Steele — November 20, 2007 @ 9:14 am
Why does it need to be a verb? It should be completely freeform.
Comment by Jamie — November 20, 2007 @ 9:24 am
Haha, I kind of liked the quirky, non-grammatical things people came up with for status updates. A worthy change, though. I can still choose to add a nonsensical "is" on top of whatever I write, as a throwback.
Comment by Mary Specht — November 20, 2007 @ 10:06 am
I think that’s too bad. I always have fun trying to bend what I want say around the is – the more creative I have to be, the better. Just one more thing that dilutes the uniqueness of FB.
Comment by Colin Carmichael — November 20, 2007 @ 10:42 am
Lol, making "is" a throwback. That's great! We should get together 10 years from now and say "Remember when 'is' was in the status updates on facebook?" Those were the good days!
Comment by Nick O'Neill — November 20, 2007 @ 12:03 pm
That’s true … I kind of enjoyed that as well. I like that it’s better integrated with Twitter though.
Comment by Nick O'Neill — November 20, 2007 @ 12:13 pm
"It depends on what the meaning of the words 'is' is." –Bill Clinton, during his 1998 grand jury testimony on the Monica Lewinsky affair
Comment by kevlar — November 20, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
Why does it need to be a verb? It should be completely freeform.
Comment by Jamie — November 20, 2007 @ 1:24 pm
Haha, I kind of liked the quirky, non-grammatical things people came up with for status updates. A worthy change, though. I can still choose to add a nonsensical “is” on top of whatever I write, as a throwback.
Comment by Mary Specht — November 20, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
Lol, making “is” a throwback. That’s great! We should get together 10 years from now and say “Remember when ‘is’ was in the status updates on facebook?” Those were the good days!
Comment by Nick O'Neill — November 20, 2007 @ 4:03 pm
[...] is changing, supposedly tonight, its status message tool so that you no longer have to use “is” (i.e. Jake is….). Or at least, thats what’s supposed to happen (maybe not?). [...]
Pingback by Facebook doing away with “is” at Citizen Jake — November 20, 2007 @ 4:14 pm
The "is" is back again. See for yourself in my post.
http://techkeyla.blogspot.com/2007/11/facebook-is...
Perhaps, it wasn't permanent
Comment by Sujoy — November 20, 2007 @ 7:19 pm
“It depends on what the meaning of the words ‘is’ is.” –Bill Clinton, during his 1998 grand jury testimony on the Monica Lewinsky affair
Comment by kevlar — November 20, 2007 @ 6:22 pm
[...] case you didn’t spot the news here, here, here, or here, I’ll repeat: Facebook is updating their status feature so that you can backspace through the [...]
Pingback by Web Community Forum » Blog Archive » In case you missed it: “is” is now optional in Facebook Status — November 20, 2007 @ 6:38 pm
[...] afternoon on the train home, I got this tweet mentioning that Facebook has dropped the “IS” from their status update box. I was [...]
Pingback by Is Facebook Dropping The "IS" In Status Updates? | Kensington, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia — November 20, 2007 @ 7:13 pm
[...] wired & allfacebook Tags: facebook, status updates, pet peeves Posted by arieanna | November 20, 2007 | Link to this [...]
Pingback by Blogaholics » Blog Archive » Facebook to drop the ‘is’ status — November 20, 2007 @ 9:21 pm
[...] Users on Facebook are encouraged to write what they were doing in status messages just like Twitter. But every message had to start with “[your first name] is” and then a custom message. But no longer will that “is” be there according to Wired and AllFacebook. [...]
Pingback by » Facebook Status Messages Becoming Easier; Removing "Is" || Pulse 2.0: Web 2.0 Reviews & Profiles || » Blog Archive — November 21, 2007 @ 12:16 am
My is is stuck.
Comment by JustMo — November 21, 2007 @ 2:25 am
[...] and found some news that will be of interest to those sick of “is”. AllFacebook.com reports that on the Facebook Platform news feed, developers were notified that they can now set a [...]
Pingback by steev’s thoughts » Blog Archive » “is”less Facebook Status — November 21, 2007 @ 2:23 am
[...] Larry Dignan: Google: $900 price targets and the ‘most basic element of Internet life’ Allfacebook: Facebook Removing “Is†From Status Updates? [...]
Pingback by » News to know: Amazon and SaaS; Firefox memory test; Dell XPS One vs. iMac | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com — November 21, 2007 @ 4:57 am
My is is stuck.
Comment by JustMo — November 21, 2007 @ 6:25 am
[...] is here to stay, or if is is dead. All of facebook seems confident that it is on the way out (full article), and it’s a hot topic on Wired, TechMeme, and scores of other [...]
Pingback by Facebook and the is. « Just Mo — November 21, 2007 @ 10:36 am
[...] am hoping that soon “is” will be a throwback as Mary Specht suggested in my comments yesterday. I was also speaking with Eric Eldon of Venturebeat about making [...]
Pingback by Is "Is" A Throwback? - The Unofficial Facebook Blog — November 21, 2007 @ 10:50 am
[...] Larry Dignan: Google: $900 price targets and the ‘most basic element of Internet life’ Allfacebook: Facebook Removing “Is†From Status Updates? [...]
Pingback by Technologies for you and me. » News to know: Amazon and SaaS; Firefox memory test; Dell XPS One vs. iMac — November 22, 2007 @ 12:50 am
[...] week I pointed out that Facebook would soon be removing “Is” from their status updates. Well it appears as [...]
Pingback by "Is" Changes Get Delayed - The Unofficial Facebook Blog — November 29, 2007 @ 1:56 pm
oh comon man why remove the "is" thats terrible!!! let it be! lets have some grammatical error fun Facbook should not bend before grammatical rules! i am highly against it! Live n let live! thats what we need!!
Comment by fati.m.a — December 2, 2007 @ 12:08 pm
oh comon man why remove the “is” thats terrible!!! let it be! lets have some grammatical error fun Facbook should not bend before grammatical rules! i am highly against it! Live n let live! thats what we need!!
Comment by fati.m.a — December 2, 2007 @ 4:08 pm
I miss the "is…" It was fun trying to come up with sentences to fit it. I was almost starting to begin all my sentences with is…
Comment by DJ — December 13, 2007 @ 6:15 am
I miss the “is…” It was fun trying to come up with sentences to fit it. I was almost starting to begin all my sentences with is…
Comment by DJ — December 13, 2007 @ 10:15 am
Accept
Comment by Arif zefira — July 24, 2009 @ 2:46 pm