This is where Facebook is wonderful and interesting. It’s the ease of falling into a new group.
I decided to look up if someone was cute enough to create an account on the name “Ruby Rails”, and was married to that person. (I think I need to get on this…) Instead, I found some groups that had to do with Ruby on Rails.
I did find this one group interesting: David Heinemeier Hansson can have my babies. (I have a feeling this link might not work for the non-facebook users.)
Back to the point.
The Amazement
I stumbled upon RapLeaf. I’m starting to get interested in applying for a position there, you know, just in case my interview with Ooga Labs doesn’t go so well.
What really made me want to apply there is because what I saw, immediately after I logged in.
Back in the day when I wanted to know what the hoopla was about myspace, (and to this day, I still want to know what the hoopla is) I made a random account, saying I was 101 years old.
To my surprise, RapLeaf found this data out. All from just my email address. Of course, I knew exactly how they figured out even what my facebook and flickr accounts were. They did a reverse lookup on my email, and pulled all that data for yummy consumption.
Sidenote: I’m just afraid when the less tech-savvy people wonder how RapLeaf got a hold of this information, and start getting all crazy like the silly people who petitioned against the “privacy problems” with facebook’s news feeds… I swear, the moment I found out about the backlash against such a great feature, I realized how much people don’t know what’s going on in the background. (Must… resist… serving up… the Truth… DAH!)
Anyway, I just wanted to say “bravo” to RapLeaf for doing this. It’s definitely paving way for some Sanity in this Insanity known as the Internet.
I think it makes sense that people were concerned about the introduction of feeds to Facebook. Sure, all of that information was already readily available, but it became orders of magnitude easier for people to discover, to the point where they didn’t have to LOOK for the information.
I’ll try to write something in response to your comment, Alex. But for now:
You agree, indeed, that the information is already available. The access to that information can just as easily be controlled by redefining what “friends” are on facebook. I feel as though this issue is actually a much deeper topic having to do with defining who “friends” are in the world of 0′s and 1′s. (Either you’re my “friend” or not my friend, end of discussion.)
I hope that clarifies a little bit about what I meant. Although, I think that my anti-backlash sentiments was a little bit too strong… most likely I took it to the extreme again…