There was a change at Facebook recently that seems to allude to a change in focus. For a long time, in the “looking for” area, there have been two options that often made people laugh when they saw them… “random play” and “whatever I can get”… but those options have now been *removed* and have been replaced with “networking”.
*Note: it would appear that people currently using them are not affected, but you can no longer choose these options if they are not currently checked.
Another change that they did quietly (which I found amusing because it was a *great* addition) is that you can now also add a “former name” – which most people would use to list their maiden name. But, it could also be used to add a screen name if you chose (for instance, I could put Sugarrae in the field) or to list your full name if you go by a nickname of vice versa (mine is a combination of my maiden name and full first name).
These two changes aren’t huge deals, but it does say to me that Facebook might be trying to “grow up” and take away some of the more “brass” features that were a hit with their (former) target user base and try to morph themselves into something bigger. Picture myspace merged with linked in and classmates.com… now if they could control the spam issues allowing applications has created, and keep working on the ability to monetize their user base without annoying them, this might be interesting.
About the Author
Rae Hoffman-Dolan aka "Sugarrae" is an affiliate marketing veteran and an (extremely) occasional Houston SEO consultant specializing in SEO audits and link building strategies. She is also the author of the often controversial Sugarrae blog and the SVP of Marketing for Speedy Incorporation Services. You can connect with Rae via Twitter and Facebook.
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Sugarrae runs on the Thesis WordPress Theme
If you’re someone who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give a ton of functionality that you wouldn’t be able to obtain otherwise with a simple control panel instead of having to alter code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.
For those "in between", like myself, I’ve created "dummy" guides for Thesis hooks that allow us to make more professional customizations than we ever deemed possible. The theme is not only highly customizable, but it has allowed me to run Sugarrae more professionally, with a much more targeted focus on monetization than it ever has been able to achieve before. You can find out more about Thesis below:
- Thesis Website and Demo
- Thesis Theme Review
- Thesis Tutorial: Hooks for Dummies
- More Thesis Tutorials on Sugarrae
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