Facebook Launches Smart Friend Lists

As global leader in social media it is no surprise that Facebook once again is showing initiative with release of its latest product, Smart Friend Lists, that lets you filter news feeds and organize friends according to how you know them. This way you can easily share updates with very specific sets of friends and not others. This nifty new tool will generate a handful of lists automatically — one for co-workers, one for people you attended school with, and one for friends who live in your city. In addition, it is easy to make lists of your own. Facebook says that if you create a new list and add a few friends, the site will automatically suggest additional friends that it believes belong in the same list. The list with the greatest buzz is Adorned with a Star. Facebook will not be suggesting people for this list as it is their belief that users will only want to add 5-10 people to this list. Adorned with a Star list has a special property: every time someone on this list of close friends makes an update or posts a photo, you’ll see it in your feed no matter how small a change it is and you’ll (optionally) get a notification about it. The Acquaintances list also has special properties, but in reverse: add someone to it and only the most important status changes (marriages, new jobs, etc.) will appear in your news feed; you’ll ignore their day to day posts. The main reason behind this new tool is to remove the hassle of searching through hundreds of friends to create friend lists as with Google+. By automating most of its new smart lists, Facebook has one-upped Google+. It will also make the social website even more user friendly.