Facebook Makes Faces Viewable to Public

Posted on September 5, 2007

Facebook is making its millions of users' faces available to the public. They have added a search on the Facebook.com homepage. A post on GigaOm explains Facebook's Public Search Listings. GigaOm says the search addition makes profiles searchable and that this information could turn up in major search engines, such as Google and Yahoo. Users only have a month to change their privacy settings or remove their faces from Facebook.

GigaOm says, "As of tomorrow, search will be available through Facebook; users will then have one month to change their privacy settings before profiles get indexed by the major search engines. These results will include, at most, your name and profile picture."

A month may not be enough time for all Facebook users to change their privacy settings before Facebook user faces and names start showing up in the major search engines. What if someone is on vacation or doesn't check their listing or email regularly. This should have been something users opted into instead of Facebook making them opt out.

Some Facebook users that want their privacy may complain that Facebook should have made this opt-in instead of opt-out. Providing the majority of Facebook users don't change their privacy setting it will allow Facebook to compete more with some of the popular people search tools. It will also allow Facebook profiles to become more indexed in the major search engines resulting in increased traffic for Facebook.com.