Facebook's new "feed" offering criticized
The latest features offered by Facebook, the popular college social networking company, have been roundly criticized.
More than 265,000 Facebook users protested, forming all kinds of groups to attack the feature within a day of its creation. The News Feed, which we wrote about Tuesday, pulls in the latest information about your friends or other contacts, notifying you for example when your secret crush breaks up and becomes available for dating again. Users complained about their activities being tracked, and for the possibility of stalking — and having the feature set as a default, instead of as an “opt-in.”
Facebook founder and chief exec, Mark Zuckerberg, responded with “Calm down. Breathe. We hear you.” But he hasn’t offered to make any changes.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
