Is Facebook A Follower, Not An Innovator?

According to a NY Times article Facebook is following in the footsteps of Twitter and Google and offering location sharing for posts to its users. They preceded this new feature with an updated privacy policy that allows you to opt-in if you want.  Well this seems safe enough of a feature on the surface. They are allowing you to participate if you want to and you can share your location with whatever friends you choose.  Yes it would seem as though this were as safe as going to a barber with Ron Artest….

A recent article also by the “Times” was a warning to all facebook users to immediately check their profile settings and in particular 3 important ones that affect your privacy.  The first is the option of who can see your profile and updates.  Currently, everyone who didn’t opt in before the December change is set at Everyone. Well I don’t know about you but I don’t want everyone to be able to see my updates because you never know who you can trust. The ability for a scam artist to use you or just outright steal your info under your nose is way too easy. The second option they urge you to change is who can see your personal info.  I had a problem with this and an ex-girlfriend due to some “questionable” photos of me tagged by my friends.  I don’t want the same kind of crap to happen again, though I am a better husband and currently out of the running for the Tiger Wood’s Man of the Year right now.  The third and most important option, at least to me, is how much google can see from your profile.  This is a huge concern for a lot of people nowadays because they do not want to see their profile info posted all over Google.  I realize that this is how facebook make money by interconnecting one another and linking advertisements, but I am not some advertisement for the world’s enjoyment.

All of these potential headaches can be cured by simply going into your profile’s settings and changing the amount of privacy that you wish to have. The fact is the people who agreed to allow less security and privacy did so with very little knowledge of their actions.  When logging on back in December and shortly before a small dialog box popped up that was labeled “transition tool” that gave facebook permission, upon signing off on it, to release this information. Unfortunately, it was very ambigious and upset many people who were not too keen on what exactly was being asked of them.  The important thing to remember kids is be conscious of what you post, cuz you could lose out on a job or lose your current job, and your info could be stolen right out from under you because you were careless.  Use a strong password, don’t be Michael Phelps and let facebook and google make money off of people dumber than you.

This leads back to the initial question.  Why would facebook want to be such a follower in a sea of followers with very few leaders.  Has Google become so dominant that all other internet-exclusive companies do everything they ask? I think that they are just trying to make the max profit they can make and especially in this bleak economy, by the way how cliche is that term now, that is obviously important.  As an aside I am not using the term “bleak economy” ever again and so help myself or anyone else who mutters this over-used phrase. The revenue generated from ad sharing more than pays for the man-power necessary to run this company and make them one of the most successful social networks ever.  It just comes down to the greediness factor displayed by both google and facebook and the evergrowing need, for whatever reason to accumulate everyones data.  What’s the real purpose here? Government conspiracy? The Chinese taking over? Did I just hear Nixon and McCarthy turning over in their graves?  I just want my old facebook back where only college kids could get on it and not my dad.

Sports Watch: Please note with baseball season coming up this dedicated section will be more or less solely directed towards the Cardinals due to the Blues not doing much and probably missing out on a playoff spot (though I will keep you posted on them as well). A few questions to ponder while Spring Training continues to blossom; Who will play third base? Will Frank-dog be as dominate as last year? Who will be the fifth starter?  All very intriguing questions with tons of possibilities….