Facebook announced today that all user profiles will now be available to non-users via a new search mechanism dubbed "Public Search Listings." It's roughly the opposite of what we meant when we said Facebook needed to open up, but if you equate "open" with "public," then you should be one of the two people excited about this move — Mark Zuckerberg being the other.
Opening up Facebook profiles to searching also means the big search engines will start indexing them as well, which some Facebook users may find alarming.
But Facebook's search plans are fairly restrictive so you needn't worry too much. If you'd like to hide your profile from the new search you can do so in the preferences under privacy settings. Facebook is giving users one month to make the changes. Interestingly I haven't received any notification about the changes outside Facebook itself.
If you don't change your privacy settings the search results will still only return your name and profile picture. And even that will only be visible if you're over eighteen.
Still, despite the the fairly tight restrictions, there is no doubt that this is a move away from Facebook's once restrictive privacy policies. The question is, is it, as Om Malik suggests, the top of a slippery slope which leads to “the overall erosion of personal privacy,” or just a minor change on Facebook's path toward people-based search engine? Let us know what you think below.
