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New Facebook Features Announced: See What They Mean For You

What Facebook's Big Changes Mean For You
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By 

Executive Tech Editor, The Huffington Post

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Facebook unveiled three new features designed to help users to better control the information they share via Facebook.

The social networking site revamped its Groups feature, created a new tool called "Download Your Information," and rehauled its dashboard to allow users to better understand what data their Facebook applications are using.

Find out more about these new features--and what they mean for you--in the slideshow below. What do you think of the new tools? Are they helpful? Will you use them? Weigh in below.

See What Facebook Knows About You(01 of05)
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Facebook has launched a new feature called "Download Your Information" that, according to Facebook, lets you "quickly download to your computer everything you've ever posted on Facebook and all your correspondences with friends: your messages, Wall posts, photos, status updates and profile information."The feature will begin rolling out on Wednesday, October 6. To take advantage of the new tool, go to "Account," then "Account Settings" followed by "Learn more" next to the "Download Your Information" option. After this, click the green "Download" button. You'll receive an email when your information is ready for download. (credit:Getty)
See What Apps Know About You(02 of05)
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Facebook is launching a revamped dashboard in order to "give you visibility into how applications use your data to personalize your experience," the social network explained in a blog post. "As you start having more social and personalized experiences across the web, it's important that you can verify exactly how other sites are using your information to make your experience better."To access the new dashboard and keep track of what applications you use, go to "Account," then "Privacy Settings," followed by "Edit your settings" under the option (on the bottom left-hand side of the screen) called "Applications and Websites." Click "Edit settings" next to "Applications you use," and then, to see what permissions you've set for each application, click "Edit settings" next to the app you'd like to review. (credit:AP)
Communicate With "Clusters" Of Friends Using "Groups"(03 of05)
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Facebook unveiled a revamped version of its "Groups" feature that is designed to allow users to share information--from pictures to status updates--with only a limited cluster of Facebook friends. Facebook explained on its blog, "With new Groups, we made it easy for you to build a space for important groups of people in your life—your family, your soccer team, your book club." Facebook adds, "When a group member posts to the group, everyone in the group will receive a notification about that post." Inside Facebook offers more information on the capabilities of the feature:
Users can create a Group, add friends, send them email updates, group chat with all group members simultaneously, or collaboratively edit documents. Each Group represents a space amongst a set of friends. Groups are built into the news feed composer as optional distribution parameters. They’re part of the Open Graph, so users can go to any website and have all the activity of their friends broken down by Groups, and will also be accessible through m.facebook.com.
 (credit:Getty)
How To Set Up A Group(04 of05)
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To set up a group, go to http://www.facebook.com/groups/, then click "Create Group." You'll see a pop-up box that allows you to name your group (and pick an icon for it, if you'd like), then you can choose which friends, relatives, or colleagues to add to that group. (Facebook notes you can also access groups by using "the bookmark in the Applications menu at the bottom left of the page" or searching "Groups" on Facebook.)There are three privacy settings for Groups: closed, which allows anyone to see the names and members of the Group; open, which allows everyone to see the Group's name, members, and content; and secret, which makes the Group's members, name, and content visible only to the members of that Group. Inside Facebook explains, "A user’s most frequently used Groups will float to the top of their bookmarks on the left navigation sidebar on the Facebook home page. Users may to ten or twenty Groups, but the bookmark system will help you keep track of your main ones and mitigate information overload."
How To Communicate Within "Groups"(05 of05)
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Facebooks new "Groups" feature offers three primary ways for the Group members to communicate: via a group chat, email, or on Facebook in a "shared space" which can be limited to the Group's members.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, "From this space, you can quickly post photos, make plans and keep up with ongoing conversations. You can also group chat with members who are online right now. You can even use each group as an email list to quickly share things when you're not on Facebook. The net effect is your whole experience is organized around spaces of the people you care most about."

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