The Most Annoying News of the Week
March 5th, 2009Author: John Ratcliffe-Lee
Facebook has been making some waves this week with the big announcements about the home page redesign as well as pages turning into profiles, etc. However, in what will surely be the most annoying news of this first week in March, they’ve also allowed their Apps platform to use the Chat function. From TechCrunch:
Aside from adding an enhanced social element to applications, the new feature could also help apps go viral much more quickly than they would using the standard Email invite system most Facebook apps employ. Developers can now present users with a list their friends who are online (even those that don’t necessarily have their apps installed), who they can then send invites via chat messages. Invites sent over chat have a greater sense of urgency and intimacy, so it’s likely that they’ll be more effective than invites sent through the site’s Email system.
While both Apps and Chat on Facebook are great, useful tools, putting the two together like this will definitely annoy a lot of people (myself included). Chat on Facebook might already be seen by some as annoying on its own. I can’t imagine getting an IM from someone asking me to save them from dysentery on the Oregon Trail is going to create lots of new converts to Facebook in general.
Sure, you can turn off chat but what if you actually use it to talk to other people? There is no “invisible” setting (yet). Essentially, what this Apps platform update has done is pigeonhole anyone who uses Chat on a regular basis and alienate those who only want to use it selectively.
Is it Friday yet?
Photo credit, smanography.
