Facebook Groups review Pt 1

11/4/10 7:40 PM Facebook , No Disintegrations , opinions , technology , web 0 Comments

I decided to dive into using Facebook groups today. So far, I have created a few groups for family and friends. I wasn't sure what to expect. Something like the Old Groups? Or Friend Lists? No, it's like a private mini-Facebook.

When you make a post to a group, the post shows up in the Most Recent News Feed to other group members. People who aren't members of the group don't see the post. It seems like Facebook combined the best part of Friend Lists (privacy settings) and the best of Old Groups (messaging, sharing pics and video, private Wall) to make the New Groups. You can do a group chat or collaboratively edit documents. It will be interesting to see how this ends up working for my groups.

So far, I like what I'm seeing in terms of privacy and integration. Making the groups part of the main news stream will help keep them from getting stale. I'll post an update in a few months (after the holiday season) and give a review of how well my groups took off and which features are good and which ones are lacking.

P.S. I see that Apple is starting a social network based on music and iTunes. It will be interesting to see what happens with that venture.