Facebook Lists and Google Plus Circles
Tuesday, September 20, 2011 at 1:08PM
This week Facebook unveiled an improved version of their "Friend Lists." In Google parlance, this is the same as "Circles." Facebook obviously felt they needed to respond to the warm reception Google Plus received with their Circles.
While Facebook did make significant improvements to how you manage your Lists, it's still not as visual or elegant as Google Plus's Circles. With Circles, you can drag-and-drop your friends right into various categories. And while hovering over the icon of any Google Plus friend, you can assign them to Circles right away -- a very elegant management system.
Facebook does, however, hold the edge in automating the way friend management works. Facebook makes use of the way you interact with Facebook to suggest various friends into different categories (close friends, acquaintances, etc.). They call this method "Smart Lists." It's great in theory, but the people I interact with most on Facebook aren't always my friends, per se. With Circles, assigning friends is still a manual process. I'm not saying that one is better the other -- it will come down to a personal choice. If you're the type of person who wants total control over your friend management, then Circles is for you. If you want help with the process, then go with Lists.
A downside to using the new version of Lists, however, is that most Facebook users will be doing this after the fact. You'll need to spend a few hours going through your hundreds of Facebook friends to add them to one List or another. At least with Circles, the platform was new, so it was easier to add friends to Circles as you were adding then to Google Plus.
I'll continue to use both, but I'd like to see Facebook eventually get more of a visual or drag-and-drop interface.
Matthew Snodgrass |
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