Zeenews Bureau
New York: Causing rage amongst its users, Facebook, in its latest makeover, has replaced the email addresses the users chose to display on their profile pages with (a)facebook.com addresses.
The change obviously upset millions of customers as the social networking website has hidden the users’ personal addresses such as - yahoo.com or gmail.com, displayed on their profiles to let people know how to contact them outside of Facebook, while putting up a Facebook email listing in its place.
The changes has also raised users’ suspicions as the more people use Facebook to communicate, the more the company can target ads based on the conversations they have on its platform — just as Google targets ads to Gmail users based on text in their emails.
"They`ve got an email service that no one is using," said Forrester analyst Nate Elliott. Getting people to send emails to and from Facebook deepens people`s connection to the site, he added. "This is a way of encouraging use — it`s just a rather crude way."
Bloggers first noticed the email change over the weekend and was publicized by media outlets. The exposure led to gripes from users, mostly on their Facebook pages and on Twitter.
In a statement, Facebook said it is giving users Facebook.com email addresses "because we find that many users find it useful to connect with each other, but using the Facebook email is completely up to you." It added that the email address people use to log in to Facebook or receive notifications won`t change.
Users who are bothered by the change can reset their profile. Facebook didn`t delete the previously displayed email addresses. So, to revert back to the original address, click on the "about" section of your profile. Once there, look for "Contact Info" and click on the edit icon on its right hand corner. There, you can change who can see your email address and which email addresses they can see.
The Facebook.com email address allows users to communicate with outside email addresses via Facebook, but it`s unclear how many people use the feature. Popular as Facebook has been with more than 900 million monthly users, its messages and posts have not replaced email, texting and other forms of communication. According to comScore, Facebook visitors spent an average of 381 minutes (or 6.35 hours) on the site last month.
Over the weekend, Facebook added a feature that lets users change what contact information is displayed on their Timeline directly from the Timeline — without having to go into their account settings. In rolling out this change, the company defaulted everyone`s displayed address to Facebook.com.
"Ever since the launch of Timeline, people have had the ability to control what posts they want to show or hide on their own timelines, and today we`re extending that to other information they post, starting with the Facebook address," Facebook spokeswoman Jillian Stefanki said in an email late Monday.
Calif.-based Facebook, Menlo Park is well known for making changes to its website. While some users are still holding off on switching their old profile pages to the Timeline, which lists users` shared life events, updates and photos in chronological order, dating back to their birth, there was a big uproar over a now-central feature of Facebook in 2006, the news feed that tells people what their friends are doing.
"It`s pretty emblematic of Facebook`s mode of operation. Take action and apologize later," said Debra Aho Williamson, an analyst at research firm eMarketer. "They seem like they pulled the trigger without telling everybody. It`s going back to the way they were operating a few years ago."
With Agency input
