Category Archives: The New Facebook

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Controlled sharing, Data Use Policy Update, Facebook, Facebook Photo Privacy Settings, Facebook Tricks, Facebook's New Design, The New Facebook

Use Your Facebook Privacy Settings – or lose them completely!

Leave a comment

At some point last year,  Facebook users who hadn’t changed their search privacy settings lost the ability to change them at all. As of yesterday, October 10, 2013, all Facebook users lost that privacy feature. Why? Because Facebook arbitrarily changes these settings to benefit themselves, not their users. Here is what they have to say about it:

Reminder: Finishing the Removal of an Old Search Setting

Read over Facebook’s rather lame reasoning for this action. What’s the next thing that Facebook will change? We suspect that, unless you have set your post/status/photo settings to anything other than ‘everyone’, everything you post on Facebook will be just that, open to everyone. Every photo, every comment, every status update will be wide open to both people you know and millions upon millions of people you don’t. Change your settings now before you lose them completely.

On the page linked above, you should read the section about limiting your past posts. Here’s a graphic that they use:

Photo of Facebook Limit Past Posts
This is a way to set all of your past posts to Friends Only or Friends of Friends, depending on your preferences.

 

When you are making a new post, whether it be a status update, a photo/album or something that you’re sharing, be sure to set the privacy level that you feel secure with. Here’s a graphic about how to do that:

Photo of Facebook Post Privacy
Adjust these setting now before you lose the ability to change them at all.

 

We’ve just read that Twitter is now more popular among teens than Facebook is. Teens, the original audience for Facebook, seem to have moved on, leaving Facebook to their parents and grandparents. You can bet that Facebook will ramp up their privacy changes in the near future to eliminate that privacy altogether. Read through our posts and figure out how to change your settings to match your own level of security. It looks as if those who don’t use the settings, lose them completely. Don’t let this happen to you.

 

Thanks for reading. We enjoy your comments and questions. Use the form below to let us know what’s on your mind. Better yet, Like us on Facebook and keep up with our posts and tips. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook

 

 

Facebook, News Ticker, The New Facebook

Facebook News Ticker – where did it go?

Leave a comment

You either like your Facebook news ticker or hate it. There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground. If you like it, and it’s missing, here’s how to get it back.

1. Get busy! Like, share, comment, be active. That’s the prerequisite to getting it back. Facebook only lets you see what everyone else is doing if you’re doing something yourself. It’s that simple!  We’re not sure what the activity parameters are but the ticker was missing on one of our accounts but, after a week or so of simply logging in, we got it back.

If you read our posts regularly, and you should, you’ll know that the beta edition of the new Facebook look has a very minimal ticker. It’s so minimal that it’s almost non-existent. Only one tick at the bottom of the chat list, that’s it! Here’s how it looks:

Photo of Facebook News Ticker 1
One lone tick down at the bottom of the chat list.

 

This pic will give you an idea of Facebook’s new look. Almost full photos in the middle, news ticker on the very bottom left, chat in black on the left side below the clickable apps and links. Lots of open space and it takes forever to scroll down.

The old ticker, which you probably have now, looks like this:

Photo of News Ticker 2
Lots of stuff going on if you want to keep up with what your friends are doing.

In this photo, heavily edited, you’ll see the long list of news that looks like it will become a thing of the past. Ask yourself, how much attention did you actually pay to those instant updates? Maybe that’s why Facebook is shutting it down.

Thanks for reading! Like us on Facebook to keep up with all of our news. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook.

 

Computers, Facebook, The New Facebook

The Latest Facebook Update – as of May 15, 2013

2 Comments

Facebook’s latest update popped up on one of our profiles this morning. Here’s a preview, just in case you haven’t seen it yet. Trust us, it’s very different. It’s too new to give a real opinion yet but, so far, we’re shocked at the different look. This ain’t your old Facebook, that’s for sure.

Here’s what greeted us this morning:

Photo of New Facebook 1
Coming soon? Looks like it’s already here.

We clicked on the green ‘Give It a Try’ button and this menu came next:

Photo of New Facebook 2
The process takes a while to load. Be patient.

 

When everything is loaded, click the ‘Take a Look’ button:

Photo of New Facebook 3
You’d better be sitting down. This is a very different Facebook.

 

First off, Facebook runs you through some explanations of the new GUI (graphic user interface…in other words, what’s in your face now!):

 

Photo of New Facebook 4
The new Facebook allows you to choose everything or just some feeds. Maybe this is the ‘less clutter’ part.

 

You decide what is on your main page. Next up is the ‘Easier to get around’ menu. Nothing new here, even though they say it’s different. The look is different, not the clickables:

Photo of New Facebook 5
Everything was on the left side anyway, right? Is this different?

 

If you need help, Facebook Help is always there. You can even switch back to the old interface. Notice that it says ‘For a while’. Seems like you have to adopt the new look even if you don’t like it. That’s Facebook for you.

Photo of New Facebook 6
For a while, huh? How long before the old is gone forever?

 

Here’s the total new look, your regular newsfeed; bigger photos, less clutter but a definite feeling of claustrophobia, at least for us. No open spaces, everything is full of stuff. Makes for a very busy look, don’t you think?

Photo of New Facebook 7
When you see your own page, you’ll get a better idea if you like this or not.

 

We think it’s very cramped, very tight. The space for ads is much larger. We noticed that right away. Facebook didn’t do this for you, they did it for their ads. Here’s what an app page looks like:

Photo of New Facebook 8
Less room for games but more room for ads.

 

Up on the right, there is the feed menu. Facebook reminds you that you can choose the types of feeds that show up on your main page:

Photo of New Facebook 9
Everything or just one feed. You decide.

 

That’s the tour so far. We’ve covered the main page differences here but, as time goes by, we’ll share any other differences that we find. Navigation is very different. If you want to get to your Timeline, you have to click on your own profile photo.  Once you’re there, you’ll see bigger ads on the right and lots of open space. We wish the open space was on the newsfeed page instead of the huge photos and clutter.  You’ll see a very busy look on your new Facebook, that’s for sure. Share your thoughts with us, let us know what you think.

Thanks for reading!