The estimated reading time for this post is 4 minutes
Some day we’ll be telling future generations that the only actions we could take on Facebook were Liking and Poking. Facebook is rolling out a new update that acknowledges you’re a multi-dimensional person, engaging in a multitude of activities you want to share with others.
What’s New with Facebook
With Facebook’s latest update that’s beginning to roll out to users, you can share what more of what you’re doing. You can share your favorite books, TV shows, movies, music, food, drinks, and other interests in your status updates. Your status updates can be more informative and helpful to your friends who want to learn more about what you’re doing (though there is still no Dislike button).
Sharing Your Activities
When you enter a status update, you now have choices of what activities you can include. Click the Happy Face icon in your status update to reveal your choices.
This will show you the activities you can add:
When you click on your activity choice, Facebook will suggest items for you, such as titles of books, TV shows, etc. For feelings you can choose from Emoticons:
When you update your status with a suggested activity, you will be linking to that suggested activity’s Facebook page. For example, if you’re eating popcorn, your status update will link to popcorn’s Facebook page (did you even know that popcorn had a Facebook page?).
Be careful. Don’t let this power go to your head. People tend to complain quite a bit when you put what you had for breakfast as your status update, so use the Eating choice sparingly…
Sharing Your Interests
You can also share your interests from your new About page that replaces your Profile page. That’s right, this update gives you a new Facebook About page that’s all about You.
Go into your Timeline and click on the About tab in the menu at the top of the page. In your About page, you can see sections for movies, TV shows, books, and music, in addition to the traditional profile information such as photos, places, jobs, relationships, schools, etc.
Your interests shared from your About page and from your status updates are displayed in these new sections so you can share this information with your friends more easily.
More About Your About Page
Sharing your interests on your About page is an easy way to add your favorite books, movies, music etc. For example, you can enter the books you’ve read, along with the books you want to read and those whose Facebook pages you Like. You can add books then Like and comment on each one.
Facebook Search
All of this information can help others find you through Facebook’s new search feature, called Open Graph Search. Shocked at the last episode of Mad Men? Search for your friends who Like the show. Just finished reading Lean In and want to see what others think? Search for your friends who have read the book or who Like it. You can even refine your search results to by age, gender, current city, etc.
Note that this ability to search for your friends can be especially useful in a crisis such as the bombing in Boston or the earthquake in Iran earlier this week. You can check in on friends near and far to see if they’re safe. Facebook may even be able to update you more quickly and reliably than using email or the phone. See, TechCrunch, How To Use Facebook To Check On Boston Friends Without Taxing Phone Lines.
Facebook’s Open Graph Search capabilities are still somewhat limited. For example, you can’t yet search for friends who are feeling sad or are drinking chocolate milk, but that is a likely expansion of Open Graph Search in the future.
Privacy
The more information you add, the more you can share your experiences with others. But if you want to keep your interests from being shared or viewed by others, you can hide an item or a section by clicking on the pencil icon to edit your privacy settings. Be careful though. If you really don’t want something to be viewed, you should probably keep it off of Facebook.
The activities and interests you share will also help Facebook display ads that are more relevant to you. If you’re annoyed by random ads that have nothing to do with you, you’re probably more receptive to these updates than someone who finds targeted ads creepy.
Poll
What do you think of Facebook’s latest updates? Take today’s Wonder of Tech poll:
Bottom Line
Have you shared your interests and activities using Facebook’s latest updates? Have you searched for others’ interests and activities? Do you have access to the new updates yet? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Facebook Home
Facebook Home is now rolling out to countries outside the US. If you have a compatible Android phone, you may now be able to update to Facebook Home from your country’s Google Play Store. Check Google Play if you want to try out Facebook Home on your phone.
Hi Carolyn,
This IS wonderful indeed 🙂
Yes, I did see the Timeline all changed up and read a few posts about it all yesterday too, though like a few others, I preferred the older version. Or perhaps I take time getting used to change so quick on Facebook 🙂
I liked the broader look where we could highlight the posts, though this update has narrowed things down a little. I guess we all get used to these changes with time.
Wow! Are they getting emotions into Facebook too – that would be wonderful, though they haven’t got it as yet as I don’t see them on my profile page. May be they are putting it up gradually as yet. Look forward to those as one often wonders what more can we do to express ourselves, other than the smile or sad faces. I’ve seen people use hearts and thumbs-up too, but really have no idea how they do those. I think this additional feature would be awesome.
I’ve yet to fill up all of my profile properly, and perhaps this weekend might just sit and work with it. So, thanks for the reminder too.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful news about the changes coming around in Facebook. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena,
To make a heart on Facebook, type < then 3, so it looks like this: <3 That makes a heart. Try it and you'll see! 🙂 When you're in a Facebook chat, you can click on the bottom of the chat window to see other emoticons, including the thumbs up. I'm glad you like the updates to Facebook. I think they will be very handy. For example, if you play tennis and need a fourth player for doubles, you could search Facebook for your friends or friends of your friends who play tennis in your area! Have fun when you get the updates, Harleena. They just started rolling out so not every one has them yet. They're US first but should go worldwide soon!
Ah…thanks so much for sharing and letting me know about the emotions. I rarely use the Facebook chat, so must have missed out on those. 🙂
The heart emoticon will work with status updates as well as in chats. I am not aware of how to get the thumbs up emoticon anywhere other than chats. I hope you have many opportunities to use the heart, Harleena! 🙂
The founder of facebook seems to keep on updating and developing the use of facebook in order to be widely, easy and friendly used for anyblody in a single site.
This is great and very helpful for social and business function.
What a helpful technology we can appreciate of.
Hi Heru, Yes, you’re right, Facebook keeps updating its site to make it more usable for everyone. Every time there is a change some people complain but this change isn’t a massive overhaul that would make people confused.
Have fun with the updates, Heru!
Hi Carolyn,
I have most of these except for the smiley face thingy. I heard that hastags are coming to Facebook too. I use them already, so that will be good.
Hi Mike, I’m so glad you have them already and that you’re enjoying them! These updates make both sharing and searching much easier. 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
I blogged about this not long ago myself. I dont use my personal Facebook that much and I tend to post to my Facebook page using Hootsuite so not sure how much I;ll actually get to use it.
Unless of course it’s that exciting it convinces me to use my personal account more – perhaps that’s their aim?
Hi Mark, Excellent point. This update does give people an incentive to post directly from Facebook instead of using a third party site. You may be tempted to post on Facebook by visiting the site so you can take advantage of these new features.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your insights here, Mark!
Hi Carolyn,
Really awesome post, pointing towards the new changes in Facebook. I wasn’t aware that much has been changed or added in Facebook.
By introducing these new options, Facebook can easily know more about any person and their daily activities. I think one need to be more careful while sharing anything on Facebook.
BTW Really great work!! 🙂
Hi Pankaj, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. You’re absolutely right, that hasn’t changed. We need to be mindful of what we are sharing on Facebook to make sure we are comfortable with others knowing information about us.
Thanks for joining the conversation, Pankaj!
I don`t why my time line is not updated yet!
Though I got FB search, as I applied for one.
I don`t spend more time on FB, so everything you wrote here about emotions and other stuff its all new for me.
Thanks for sharing
~@Khajamoin1
Hi Khaja, Facebook rolls out its updates over time. That way the system isn’t overloaded in case there’s a glitch. You should be seeing the update soon.
Yes, these updates are new, you may be seeing them in others’ status updates so now you will know what they are. When they appear on your FB account, you will be all set to start using them, if you want to!
Hi Carolyn
I noticed the change to my timeline a few days ago, although not the About Page.
I think I preferred the old version of the timeline too but more often than not I don’t look at the timeline in any case. Most of my time is spent on the News Feed.
I haven’t got the option yet to share my activities. I’m not sure how much I’d use it really. I wouldn’t really want to know if someone was eating a hotdog or if they were watching a rerun of Friends. I can see how some people would find it useful though.
Hi Tim, Yes, it sounds as if you haven’t received the updates yet but you’re seeing posts from people who have been updated. You’re absolutely correct, just because we can share doesn’t mean that we should. Oversharing means risking being unfriended or blocked.
I imagine there will be those who embrace these new features and have to try them all out, but then will go back to their old habits and just share what they had been sharing before.
I hope you get the updates soon, Tim!
I confess Carolyn! I have not been on Facebook much this week. I’ve popped over for short periods of time but I’ve been so busy I just have not had time to even skim through my newsfeed. I know, I’m so bad.
Guess I’ll have to put some time aside to update my about page “again”. Man oh man I wish they’d quit rearranging things all the darn time. I understand why they do it but if we already have those things down then why wipe them out and have us do them yet again. I find that kind of stuff annoying myself.
But some sounds like fun so I’ll be checking them out. Always appreciate you staying on top of these things for us.
Great job!
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, You mean you’ve been living your life in the real world and not hanging out on Facebook? You are bad! 😉
No need to check out these changes immediately. But when you go on Facebook, you will see people using the new features so it’s good to know what’s going on!
Yes, these features are fun. The Open Graph search function is especially exciting. I’m finding it very handy to search for friends who have common interests.
I hope you enjoy these new features when you have a chance to try them, Adrienne! 🙂
Funny thing, as I’m reading your post, I hopped over to Fb and tried out that lil “emotion” status thingy. haha Too cute! Fb is every evolving!
Hi Bren, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, these features are a lot of fun! We can express ourselves much more effectively with these new features, plus search for our friends who have the same interest. Very cool! :-bd
I think the addition of hashtags is a good move by facebook. Carolyn, earlier in the post you had a heading with a poll, but I didn’t see where I could vote? Did I miss it already?
Hi Frank, Yes there is a poll in this post. It is towards the end of the article. Please let me know if you can’t see it. The results are quite interesting so far! 🙂
Thanks for the reply Carolyn, unfortunately still can’t see it. Maybe it’s got something to do with my browser settings. Anyway, there’s always the next one.
Hi Frank, I’m sorry to hear that you can’t see the poll. What browser are you using? I want to make sure that I get this resolved because if you’re having problems seeing the poll, others probably are too!
To access the poll directly, use this link: http://poll.fm/46wwf You should be able to both vote in the poll and see the results from this page.
I hope this works for you!
Tried on another computer, works now. Got a chance to vote. I didn’t see the poll while using Firefox but using Chrome everything was fine.
Hi Frank, I’m so glad you got a chance to vote! Thanks for letting me know that Firefox is your browser. If I discover that’s a problem, I will let the polling website (Polldaddy) know.
Hi Carolyn this new updating FB is Awesome sharing you favorite things books, movies, music these some parts create more captivate FB and sharing views emotions your views makes feel appealing. well i am so much enjoy this innovative and novelty modify.
Thank You
Hi Sneha, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you’re enjoying the new updates to Facebook. They can make updating your status a lot more fun!
Hi Carolyn,
I am actually new here and just found you while reading some blogs at aha-now. Have heard about the latest Facebook changes but never tried all of it – just now! Its just that your blog is so compelling that it motivates me to try those new thingy! 🙂 Will surely read more of your work.
Hi Margaux, I’m so glad you found me through Harleena’s place. Yes, The Wonder of Tech is all about you discover and learn about tech you might not have tried otherwise. It’s great you’re keeping an open mind about the Facebook updates!
Hi Carolyn,
I had no idea about the new updates on Facebook. I have to confess, that even though I keep updating Facebook for some of my clients, I am not using it a lot personally or for my business. There are still so much happening on Facebook with so many people, and to me, there are too much noise, even though I am trying to filter my way through it. I like some of the new features, especially the part where we can share interests in a better way.
Have a wonderful weekend Carolyn 🙂
Hi Jens, Yes, if you’re advising clients on Facebook, it’s important to keep up with all of the updates. The easy sharing is very handy for people. I also like the search feature which makes pairing people with interests and locations extremely easy.
I hope you’re able to use the updates to help your clients, Jens!
That’s funny, because I live in Europe and we don’t have that yet! They always roll it you in the USA first before we get it 🙁
Hi Boid, Yes, I used to live in the UK and it was always frustrating when the US would get tech well ahead of us. But one of the commenters above who lives in the UK says he has the updates so perhaps you will be seeing them soon!
Carolyn – yes, i did see the changes in my timeline. It is nice to have an About section where we can actually provide more details and let others know about ourselves.
However, I am not much fond of too frequent updates in other person’s life, not do I share such minute by minute updates to my status.
Hashtags might prove useful, I should say i am not totally against these updates, but not certain if I would like to have them around too 🙂
Hi Praveen, Good point. If these updates result in oversharing, then they aren’t for the better, even if we like them for our own sharing. Hashtags would be a great way to let people share and search for relevant terms. We don’t know what future updates Facebook has in store for us, but we can be sure that this isn’t the last update Facebook will have!
Hi Carolyn
Looks like Facebook is going through a revamp. In my opinion it has to keep rolling out improvements to keep itself no1 in social media and not let anyone get the jump on them as every thing has its time and facebooks is now. I do know quite a few people who do not like all the changes though so I suppose there is two sides to the coin. Some people just do not like change and development in anything in life including Facebook though.
Very informative thanks lee
Hi Lee, You’re right, some people don’t like change no matter what. But with the ever-evolving world of social media, sites need to update to stay current. It will be interesting to see what Facebook has in store for us next!
Wow! now I wanna download this Facebook Home and try it on my android phone. I hope it’s good, anyway thanks for the great news about facebook
Hi Jan, I hope you enjoy having Facebook Home on your Android phone!
Facebook has made many changes this year alone! Graph Search, New NewsFeed, this new status mood updates and a lot more. Facebook is gonna be a much bigger social network soon! 🙂
Hi Kuldeep, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, the changes keep coming from Facebook, it’s such an exciting time. Who knows what’s next for Facebook? We shall see!
Thanks for stopping by to share your thoughts, Kuldeep.
Facebook really has a lot of things on offering. You are absolutely right. Do you feel it’s time to bypass Facebook likes, I mean the weight of FB likes are not as much as it used to be.
Hi Crazy, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Great question. I personally believe Facebook Likes still carry weight and with the advent of Open Graph search, the value of a Like may grow in the future.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts here, Crazy.:-)
well i must say facebook has updated itself many times in the past and it keeps on updating itself. some updates are nice and acceptable but some of their updates are totally crap. so i think they should try to get feedback from users to know which update is okay
Hi Prabhat, Yes, Facebook seems to update constantly. Perhaps they do try to get feedback from a sample of users. With a billion users worldwide, Facebook would have difficulty getting feedback from everyone, but you’re right, user input is very important.
Yes Prabhat, you are absolutely right, FB involved many updates from timeline to Facebook Home as well as Graph Search and the basic reason behind this is to provide readers quality and more engagement. I think FB can advance more and more in future also.
Hi Pawan, Yes, you’re right. I believe that we can expect more updates from Facebook in the future. If people like the updates they are bound to be more engaged.
I like some of the updates but HATE some of them such as you having to pay for people to see your posts basically. 🙁
Hi Leon, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, I can understand that. I haven’t been solicited to pay to send someone a message on Facebook yet, but I have heard from others who have been. No one has been too pleased about that (or paid the dollar!).
Thank you for the warm welcome! Yes, FB makes you pay $1 to people who aren’t your friends or else it goes to the Other inbox. Geez!