Search Engine and Marketing News Roundup - Facebook Opens Up to Search Engines
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If you have ever wondered if some of your long-lost friends are hanging out on Facebook, finding out may soon become easier than ever. The site is beginning to open up its profiles so that they'll be searchable from Google and Yahoo in the next few weeks. It's the latest step on Facebook's path to become a little less exclusive and to open up more to the masses.
With an apparently growing consciousness of the gaffes it has made in the past, Facebook warned its users to check their privacy settings long before the change would take place. By adjusting the privacy settings on their Welcome page, the owner of a Facebook profile can still make it invisible to the search engines.
Already, it's clear that the company is trying to avoid ruffling any feathers. Facebook engineer Philip Chung posted in the site's blog that "The public search listing contains less information than someone could find right after signing up anyway, so we're not exposing any new information, and you have complete control over your public search listing." Even so, this is something of a big deal; up until now, Facebook has not allowed search engines to have access to its user profiles, unlike other social networks.
Some worry that opening the profiles to search engines could open Facebook users to identity thieves. "Social networking sites should be a source of fun, not worry, but there are people out there who spend their time trying to exploit people through their private information," warns Keith Reed, online manager for web security firm Trend Micro. "Facebook users often provide details such as mobile numbers or employment history and these can be used to hack or steal a user's identity."
Facebook has been growing in leaps and bounds. Formerly used exclusively within Harvard University, it later spread to other universities, then schools, then finally opened up to everyone with a valid email address about a year ago. It boasts well over 30 million users, and has been growing at a rate in excess of 500 percent in the last six months. This latest move could encourage further growth of the network; when people who aren't members of Facebook can find their friends on the site, they'll be more likely to want to join.
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