Back in August I suggested that if Facebook allowed you to place your friends in specific groups (e.g. professional, social, family, etc) and assign custom privacy settings, LinkedIn would be doomed. While Facebook is going to have to work toward putting an end to LinkedIn, they have announced their intention to launch this new feature. Facebook states:
We’ll let you organize that long list of friends into groups so you can decide more specifically who sees what.
As Alexey Komissarouk told me: it doesn’t get more official then that. This is a highly anticipated feature. A number of people posted comments on my article stating that this was a critical feature that Facebook should release in the near future. I couldn’t agree more and fortunately, it looks like they are listening. Are you going to stop using LinkedIn when this new feature comes out?
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I think it'll take a lot more than this new feature to make me move from linkedin. Whilst grouping will be useful for facebook, where i live, in the UK, I can see this being used to group those people who you actually know (groups of true deep friendships or a group of casual acquaintances) versus those that just want to be your "friend" although you have never met them and probably never will (myspace behaviour)Also I see a lot of activity on facebook really geared towards showing off and seeing who can show to be the most outrageous person or cool person or who drank the most. I dont think that this activity works too well for serious business networking. Mike
Comment by mike — September 29, 2007 @ 7:36 am
I think it'll take a lot more than this new feature to make me move from linkedin.
Whilst grouping will be useful for facebook, where i live, in the UK, I can see this being used to group those people who you actually know (groups of true deep friendships or a group of casual acquaintances) versus those that just want to be your "friend" although you have never met them and probably never will (myspace behaviour)
Also I see a lot of activity on facebook really geared towards showing off and seeing who can show to be the most outrageous person or cool person or who drank the most. I dont think that this activity works too well for serious business networking.
Mike
Comment by mike — September 29, 2007 @ 8:36 am
Mike, I think you mighta missed the point of Neil's post!
Comment by Mark — September 29, 2007 @ 10:10 am
I don’t know. I do agree that this is a crucial feature for Facebook but they really are playing with fire at the same time. This is exactly the type of change that could break untold numbers of Facebooks apps and turn into a publicity nightmare before you know it. I hate to criticize people who are trying to do the right thing I just think they made a much larger mistake than they know when they didn’t include something like this from the start. Fixing that mistake is going to be a lot harder than just adding a new feature. As far as LinkedIn, the reality is that Facebook has a big tech following but most people in other business areas don’t take it too seriously. It’s the equivalent of MySpace in that they see it as more of a kid’s toy. LinkedIn on the other hand has a reputation as a network for making business connections and I think that marketing advantage will be enough to keep them alive for years to come.
Comment by Tom — September 29, 2007 @ 11:11 am
That's great news! I was originally trying to keep my FB among friends and not have colleagues or clients on it, but as time goes by it's proving to be more difficult, especially for those who are both colleagues and friends (that gray area). Being able to have this feature would be great.As for getting rid of my LinkedIn profile. I wouldn't be so quick to do that as I do get business leads from it and I'm all about networking in as many places as I can when it comes to driving more business my way or to my friends for those leads that I’m not interested in.I'm looking forward to seeing this new FB feature!
Comment by Miiko — September 29, 2007 @ 11:11 am
Nice try Nick but I think you're wrong. Yes, it would be handy to gradate contacts on Facebook. But Facebook's business model is all about locking you in. LinkedIn's model is about functional business networking. To that end I can download a big VCF file of all my contacts on LI. But I can do nothing like this on FB, and if they allowed it, it would mean I could up sticks and leave with my network intact. Hence they will never do it and hence why LI is in no way over. Yet.
Comment by Mike Butcher — September 29, 2007 @ 11:15 am
LinkedIn is for professionals.Facebook is for fun.That's not going to change, even with categories. And LinkedIn can add categories as well. It's not that big a deal.
Comment by Louis Gray — September 29, 2007 @ 11:16 am
Wow, I definitely didn't expect this type of response. On the last post I made, everyone seemed to agree, this time around there is some backlash. Is this going to receive the same type of backlash as the newsfeed had? Honestly, I think they can do this without significantly impacting the user experience on the site. Mike, someone has already made an application so that you can export your Facebook contacts and sync them with outlook:http://apps.facebook.com/apps/application.php?i…..While it isn't fully featured it definitely comes close. There is no way that people are going to run to another social network if Facebook allows you to export your contacts. Sorry!
Comment by Nick O'Neill — September 29, 2007 @ 11:24 am
I don’t know. I do agree that this is a crucial feature for Facebook but they really are playing with fire at the same time. This is exactly the type of change that could break untold numbers of Facebooks apps and turn into a publicity nightmare before you know it. I hate to criticize people who are trying to do the right thing I just think they made a much larger mistake than they know when they didn’t include something like this from the start.
Fixing that mistake is going to be a lot harder than just adding a new feature.
As far as LinkedIn, the reality is that Facebook has a big tech following but most people in other business areas don’t take it too seriously. It’s the equivalent of MySpace in that they see it as more of a kid’s toy. LinkedIn on the other hand has a reputation as a network for making business connections and I think that marketing advantage will be enough to keep them alive for years to come.
Comment by Tom — September 29, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
That's great news! I was originally trying to keep my FB among friends and not have colleagues or clients on it, but as time goes by it's proving to be more difficult, especially for those who are both colleagues and friends (that gray area). Being able to have this feature would be great.
As for getting rid of my LinkedIn profile. I wouldn't be so quick to do that as I do get business leads from it and I'm all about networking in as many places as I can when it comes to driving more business my way or to my friends for those leads that I’m not interested in.
I'm looking forward to seeing this new FB feature!
Comment by Miiko — September 29, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
LinkedIn is for professionals.
Facebook is for fun.
That's not going to change, even with categories. And LinkedIn can add categories as well. It's not that big a deal.
Comment by Louis Gray — September 29, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
Wow, I definitely didn't expect this type of response. On the last post I made, everyone seemed to agree, this time around there is some backlash. Is this going to receive the same type of backlash as the newsfeed had?
Honestly, I think they can do this without significantly impacting the user experience on the site.
Mike, someone has already made an application so that you can export your Facebook contacts and sync them with outlook:
http://apps.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=...
While it isn't fully featured it definitely comes close. There is no way that people are going to run to another social network if Facebook allows you to export your contacts. Sorry!
Comment by Nick O'Neill — September 29, 2007 @ 12:24 pm
You can already do this, and more, with Facebook’s Inner Circle application. It lets you group your friends into private groups, called Circles, and additionally lets you share information with them from outside of Facebook (like RSS feeds), as well as chat directly with groups of them instead of individually using Facebook. Check it out…
Comment by Cappy Popp — September 29, 2007 @ 12:42 pm
[...] 29th, 2007 · No Comments This makes me so incredibly happy: Back in August I suggested that if Facebook allowed you to place your friends in specific groups [...]
Pingback by Facebook’s Best Move Yet « ryan moede :: social media — September 29, 2007 @ 12:59 pm
i had stopped a while ago
Comment by howard lindzon — September 29, 2007 @ 1:15 pm
It is not about a feature, it is about utility. And that is a function of how the community perceives and adopts the feature.
Comment by yawn — September 29, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
[...] (via: Nick O’Neill) [...]
Pingback by rexblog.com: Rex Hammock’s weblog » Blog Archive » The ability to segment Facebook friends is “in the works” — September 29, 2007 @ 2:01 pm
Mike, I think you mighta missed the point of Neil’s post!
Comment by Mark — September 29, 2007 @ 2:10 pm
Appreciate the props Nick
.Inner Circle moves in the right direction, but the sort of power that grouping friends requires, taking into account the privacy settings requirements, can only realistically be implemented by Facebook itself.Looking forward to it 
Comment by Alexey Komissarouk — September 29, 2007 @ 3:19 pm
[...] speaker Nick O’Neill writes that Facebook will soon be launching advanced friend grouping and granular privacy controls so that “you can control who sees [...]
Pingback by Web Community Forum » Blog Archive » It’s Official: Granular Permissioning and Friend Grouping Coming to Facebook — September 29, 2007 @ 3:21 pm
Nice try Nick but I think you’re wrong. Yes, it would be handy to gradate contacts on Facebook. But Facebook’s business model is all about locking you in. LinkedIn’s model is about functional business networking. To that end I can download a big VCF file of all my contacts on LI. But I can do nothing like this on FB, and if they allowed it, it would mean I could up sticks and leave with my network intact. Hence they will never do it and hence why LI is in no way over. Yet.
Comment by Mike Butcher — September 29, 2007 @ 3:15 pm
Appreciate the props Nick
.
Inner Circle moves in the right direction, but the sort of power that grouping friends requires, taking into account the privacy settings requirements, can only realistically be implemented by Facebook itself.
Looking forward to it
Comment by Alexey Komissarouk — September 29, 2007 @ 4:19 pm
You can already do this, and more, with Facebook’s Inner Circle application. It lets you group your friends into private groups, called Circles, and additionally lets you share information with them from outside of Facebook (like RSS feeds), as well as chat directly with groups of them instead of individually using Facebook. Check it out…
Comment by Cappy Popp — September 29, 2007 @ 4:42 pm
i had stopped a while ago
Comment by howard lindzon — September 29, 2007 @ 5:15 pm
[...] Today, we see that young men are far from immune to the Facebook love bug! [...]
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It is not about a feature, it is about utility. And that is a function of how the community perceives and adopts the feature.
Comment by yawn — September 29, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
[...] Separate classes of friends (e.g. Professional, Family, Personal) coming soon to Facebook. Nick O’Neill at AllFacebook calls this Facebook’s “Killer Feature.” I’ve said before this is inevitable, sooner or later, by the very logic of Facebook and its aim to accurately represent “the social graph.” Based on what Nick reports, it looks like it’s “sooner.” [...]
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[...] read more | digg story [...]
Pingback by Hawkeye :: Murali’s Blog » Is Facebook gearing to kill LinkedIn ? — September 29, 2007 @ 11:08 pm
[...] with different people. It’s been suggested that this particular feature is a real LinkedIn killer. As I mention in a comment to Stowe Boyd: This is such an important issue, and one not to be [...]
Pingback by A Facebook for All Seasons: Skinning the Social Network « SmoothSpan Blog — September 29, 2007 @ 11:45 pm
[...] finally sort through the real friends from the fans. It’s a much needed feature that people have been requesting for a long [...]
Pingback by Facebook To Launch Friend Grouping — September 30, 2007 @ 1:09 am
[...] AllFacebook is reporting that soon Facebook could kill off LinkedIn with new ways to segregate and work with your contact list, and I think he’s got a good point.  Ideally it seems like would be nice to have ONE intersection point that can be adjusted and manipulated according to our network, community, or audience.  But it’s not clear people will want that to be a commercial enterprise – in fact OpenID in some form seems more likely to take on that role. [...]
Pingback by Facebook will rule the world in 33 days! Ummm … not. « Joe Duck — September 30, 2007 @ 3:08 am
[...] (la limite), cela sera une occasion de pouvoir différencier les amis des fans. Une fonctionnalité réclamée par beaucoup depuis [...]
Pingback by TechCrunch en français » Facebook lance enfin l'organisation des amis; dommage pour les concurrents — September 30, 2007 @ 3:48 am
I **really** hope that this is going to be a groupings feature, and not groups where one person can be in one and only one group. Or where you have to create groups and then stick people in them.Tagging, please. Please.
Comment by Stephanie Booth — September 30, 2007 @ 5:08 am
I **really** hope that this is going to be a groupings feature, and not groups where one person can be in one and only one group. Or where you have to create groups and then stick people in them.
Tagging, please. Please.
Comment by Stephanie Booth — September 30, 2007 @ 6:08 am
Stephanie I have been using apps.facebook.com/innercircle for a week or so. It already supports grouping and it even lets you have conversations with your groups and check out all their email and status on a per group basis. I wonder what will become of applications like this one with Facebook reimplementing everyones features.
Comment by John Cunningham — September 30, 2007 @ 8:04 am
Stephanie I have been using apps.facebook.com/innercircle for a week or so. It already supports grouping and it even lets you have conversations with your groups and check out all their email and status on a per group basis.
I wonder what will become of applications like this one with Facebook reimplementing everyones features.
Comment by John Cunningham — September 30, 2007 @ 9:04 am
The main point is, will this new feature attract recruiters, hiring managers or even general business crowd to Facebook. Currently Facebook is gettting too cluttered. They are trying to do everything. Don't believe me. Try searching for "Microsoft" on the search tool. You will get hundreds of entries..no specifics. Facebook was setup to connect with friends. They should keep it that way. No matter what, they cannot compete with Linkedin and NetHooks. These sites are catered specifically for professional contact. All parties coming into the site know what they are getting into which is professional networking.For students in facebook, very high percentage will not use the tool to separate business contacts.. most of them will use to separate their friends into different categories.
Comment by Craig Lu — September 30, 2007 @ 11:31 am
The main point is, will this new feature attract recruiters, hiring managers or even general business crowd to Facebook. Currently Facebook is gettting too cluttered. They are trying to do everything. Don't believe me. Try searching for "Microsoft" on the search tool. You will get hundreds of entries..no specifics. Facebook was setup to connect with friends. They should keep it that way. No matter what, they cannot compete with Linkedin and NetHooks. These sites are catered specifically for professional contact. All parties coming into the site know what they are getting into which is professional networking.
For students in facebook, very high percentage will not use the tool to separate business contacts.. most of them will use to separate their friends into different categories.
Comment by Craig Lu — September 30, 2007 @ 12:31 pm
I can't wait for this feature!
Comment by Scott Bradley — September 30, 2007 @ 2:02 pm
[...] Summary XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Feature: Facebook to release contact groups Nick O’Neill claims that contact groups would be the killer app to put LinkedIn away, giving members the ability to create multiple views for different folks on their networks. [...]
Pingback by Weekly Digest of the Social Networking Space: Oct 3, 2007 — September 30, 2007 @ 2:30 pm
Ehh… I disagree completely.Various social networks have some common and some unique FEATURES, but that's not what makes them special, it's the USERS that matter far more.The top three social networks these days all started with different type of core user. They represent a very diverse spectrum of web users:LinkedIn was for professionals, Facebook was for college students, and MySpace was for bands, teens, and perverts.As others have noted, simply adding one or two new features to any of them isn't going to change the culture and stigma of a social network.That said, it's a nice feature and is certainly can't hurt. I don't foresee any kind of "backlash" against this type of feature, unlike the News Feeds (although that backlash seems to have fizzled a couple months later)
Comment by Tom — September 30, 2007 @ 6:33 pm
I can’t wait for this feature!
Comment by Scott Bradley — September 30, 2007 @ 6:02 pm
Ehh… I disagree completely.
Various social networks have some common and some unique FEATURES, but that's not what makes them special, it's the USERS that matter far more.
The top three social networks these days all started with different type of core user. They represent a very diverse spectrum of web users:
LinkedIn was for professionals, Facebook was for college students, and MySpace was for bands, teens, and perverts.
As others have noted, simply adding one or two new features to any of them isn't going to change the culture and stigma of a social network.
That said, it's a nice feature and is certainly can't hurt. I don't foresee any kind of "backlash" against this type of feature, unlike the News Feeds (although that backlash seems to have fizzled a couple months later)
Comment by Tom — September 30, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
[...] Now that Facebook has announced that it plans to include granular permissioning for different types of friends, the question on everyone’s minds is, “What does this mean for Linkedin?” [...]
Pingback by Web Community Forum » Blog Archive » Facebook for Professionals — October 1, 2007 @ 1:26 pm
[...] Wochen, mindestens aber noch diesen Monat, implementiert werden. An anderer Stelle wird es als Killer-Feature beschrieben. Dem kann ich mich nur anschließen: In Verbindung mit der Plattform wird mit diesem Feature [...]
Pingback by neunetz.com » Facebook: Freundgruppen kommen, Status via Twitter, Firefox-Toolbar, anstehende Lokalisierung — October 2, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
This is a feature that I've been hoping to see for quite a while. I don't know if this will kill LinkedIn, but it definitely poses a very real threat.
Comment by Adam Snider — October 2, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
This is a feature that I’ve been hoping to see for quite a while. I don’t know if this will kill LinkedIn, but it definitely poses a very real threat.
Comment by Adam Snider — October 2, 2007 @ 4:16 pm
[...] network fatigue and contact groups (note, though, this feature has been announced for Facebook) since we discussed this; we need Structured Portable Social [...]
Pingback by Fresh Lime Soda episode 8: What on Earth is Mornington Crescent? « Fresh Lime Soda — October 3, 2007 @ 8:41 am
I think that's a tremendously useful feature, and I continue to be impressed by the technical innovation coming from Facebook.But asking me if that would make me "switch" to Facebook from LinkedIn is like asking me if I would switch from BNI to the Chamber of Commerce if the Chamber started having weekly meetings, or if I'd stop visiting my favorite Mexican restaurant because my favorite Italian restaurant starts serving Mexican food. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose they're all competing for our attention, but it's still the people, not the technology, that provide the most value, and I see absolutely no compelling reason to devote all of my attention in one place.
Comment by Scott Allen — October 3, 2007 @ 2:29 pm
I think that's a tremendously useful feature, and I continue to be impressed by the technical innovation coming from Facebook.
But asking me if that would make me "switch" to Facebook from LinkedIn is like asking me if I would switch from BNI to the Chamber of Commerce if the Chamber started having weekly meetings, or if I'd stop visiting my favorite Mexican restaurant because my favorite Italian restaurant starts serving Mexican food. In the grand scheme of things, I suppose they're all competing for our attention, but it's still the people, not the technology, that provide the most value, and I see absolutely no compelling reason to devote all of my attention in one place.
Comment by Scott Allen — October 3, 2007 @ 3:29 pm
[...] development that may do LinkedIn in is Facebook’s next killer feature. AllFacebook blogged on Facebook’s Killer Feature that lets users group connections and apply privacy settings to each – friends, family, [...]
Pingback by Building Conversations With Facebook — October 6, 2007 @ 4:33 am
[...] until Tim brought it up. It’s a critical part of the granularity feature that Facebook will soon launch. Putting friends into different buckets doesn’t just mean that you want to show them [...]
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[...] month I discussed Facebook’s killer feature that would potentially be the death of LinkedIn. While I still believe that this feature will keep [...]
Pingback by LinkedIn Still Doesn't Get It - The Unofficial Facebook Blog — October 12, 2007 @ 12:50 pm
[...] Are you one of those Facebook users who has added many friends and wants to be able to keep track of them in some way that actually makes sense? Yeah, me too. So, I did some research on the many friends apps out there and realised most of them did not actually do what I needed them to do.. but one did! (Thanks also to the reader who mentioned Inner circle the other day) [...]
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[...] is introducing a feature that will enable users to segment that chaos into more clearly defined, higher value segments, e.g. [...]
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[...] That has been the primary issue with Facebook but fortunately they have announced that will soon enable grouping features. So while this expresses my disagreement with the inverse of Metcalfe’s law, none of this [...]
Pingback by Is Facebook Overvalued? - The Unofficial Facebook Blog — October 25, 2007 @ 2:00 pm
[...] will continue to adapt the site to the way people actually use it — as it did with the announcement of an impending friend grouping feature — or whether a more top-down attitude will prevail. If the latter is true, then advertisers [...]
Pingback by Web Community Forum » Blog Archive » How Accurate is Facebook’s “Social Graph”? And How Will that Affect Advertisers? — October 29, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
[...] in gaining the attention of college students nationwide, Facebook does need to hurry up and release their grouping features that will enable users to differentiate among their contact relationships. This will protect users [...]
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[...] my AllFacebook blog I have frequently discussed Facebook’s killer feature that would be the end of LinkedIn. Unfortunately Facebook has yet to release that feature and [...]
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[...] types that differentiate among your different affiliation groups. This is what I once called the LinkedIn killer. Facebook has still failed to launch this feature and it appears that MySpace has realized the [...]
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Social Network Overlap…In this height of Facebook mania, we've all seen or heard the opinion that Facebook is eating LinkedIn's or Myspace's lunch. I've seen some reports from Compete and Read/Write Web in the last couple weeks that imply (to me anyway)…
Comment by MetaMuse — November 29, 2007 @ 6:25 pm
Social Network Overlap…
In this height of Facebook mania, we’ve all seen or heard the opinion that Facebook is eating LinkedIn’s or Myspace’s lunch. I’ve seen some reports from Compete and Read/Write Web in the last couple weeks that imply (to me anyway)…
Trackback by MetaMuse — November 29, 2007 @ 11:25 pm
[...] network fatigue and contact groups (note, though, this feature has been announced for Facebook) since we discussed this; we need Structured Portable Social [...]
Pingback by Climb to the Stars (Stephanie Booth) » Fresh Lime Soda Episodes 8 & 9 — December 14, 2007 @ 12:29 pm
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Comment by Angeli Carsirosa — March 14, 2011 @ 9:24 pm