Looking Forward to the New Facebook Controls and Chat

Facebook obviously does a lot of things right. Other things, it's a mystery why they've been so long in coming -- which is how I feel about the privacy controls and chat coming this week.

Now, for instance, you'll be able to fine-tune privacy settings, so college students could block their parents from seeing the spring break bacchanal photos but still let them view the homecoming parade shots. Not even close to being a ground-breaking concept. Probably should've been part of Facebook a year ago.

Chat could be interesting, for the first time making Facebook real-time instead of only asynchronous. You'll actually be able to see who's online -- the kind of "presence" you get with something like AIM -- and shoot them a message. This could be great for Facebook, although there's a danger it will change the feel of being on the site. (Chat has been possible using a downloadable, non-Facebook app called Live Chat, which apparently few people use.)

More once the new services go live...

. □