Understanding the New Facebook Timeline

Unfortunately for many of us, Facebook is about to roll out a new change on everybody called Timeline. You may have noticed that some of your friends have already voluntarily switched over. And in keeping with Facebook's "I don't care what the user wants" attitude .... we'll all be getting the time very soon.

This new change will be so different that it will take longer to learn and understand what's going on than previous changes to Facebook.   Here's a brief introduction of the new Timeline profile.

And should you decide to stay with Facebook after this new change, the links below should help you navigate the new timeline quicker.


Facebook Changes Again - Everything You Need to Know

Facebook Timeline - Old Profiles verses New Timeline Profiles


10 Things You Should Know About Facebook Timeline

Preps for Facebook's Timeline Layout - 6 Must Do Privacy Tweaks

How to Get Your Facebook in Order

Hopefully the links above will help you adjust to Facebook's new timeline profile quicker.   But just in case you're one of the many users who are ready to sever your relationship with Facebook, you can always cancel your Facebook Account by clicking here.

Removing Facebook Scam Apps

There's another new scam making the rounds on Facebook tonight. This one is a new "Teacher from Behind"
 video.   These types of scams entice you with provocative messages to click on their links and then gain access to your profile information. Other similar Facebook scams include:

1. See Who's stalking you on Facebook 
2. Valentine's Day Scam
3. Japanese Tsunami video 
4. Guy that Lives on my street killed his girlfriend today

And there's loads more!   These scams are spread on Facebook by folks clicking on the links.  So the first defense against them ... is DON'T CLICK ON THE LINKS!   And then tell your kids not to click on the links.  The next step is to educate your Facebook friends by posting messages about the latest scams and warning them not to click on the links.

If however, you find that you or one of your friends have clicked a scam link on Facebook, here's what you need to do:

1. Log into your Facebook account
2. In the blue navigation bar, click ACCOUNT and then PRIVACY SETTINGS
3. Next to "Apps You Use" is a button that reads, EDIT SETTINGS (click this button)
4. Scroll down the list and find the scam application and click the "X" to remove it.  Feel free to remove any other applications you may no longer be using.

Here's another article you may be interested in, called "5 Facebook Scams You Should Protect Yourself From". 

Opting Out of Facebook Advertising

Once again, Facebook has made a change to their which affects every user.   Free sites (like Facebook) often depend on Advertising for income.  While most of us understand and accept this, the problem is that Facebook can use your photos and information in their ads.  I wrote a post a while back when Facebook announced changes to their advertising.  At the time, it appeared that there would be no way for users to opt out of having their photos used in the ads.  Now there does appear to be some control for users.  Some of your friends may have posted the status message below:

Today, Facebook will start using your photos in ads that will appear on the profile page of your contacts. It's legal and is mentioned in the fine print when you create your account. TO stop this do the following: Account, Account Settings, Then click on Facebook Ads ( tab...), choose "No one" on the drop-down menu and save changes. Copy this and use in a status update

This message tells you how to opt out of Facebook's new advertising feature.  Here's the steps again:

1. Log into Facebook
2. On the blue menu bar click ACCOUNT and then ACCOUNT SETTINGS
3. Click the tab on the far right that reads, FACEBOOK ADS
4. Close the Pop-up window that appears. 
5. Use the drop-down menu to select NO ONE and then save the changes. 

That should take care of things for now ... but who knows what the next Facebook change will bring.
For more information about Facebook Privacy, click here.

Use Caution When Posting on Facebook

You probably noticed that a few of your Facebook "friends" will post just about anything that pops into their head.  Often times the posts are full of profanity and other vulgarities.  This seems to be especially true with younger people.

Very few people consider the potential consequences when posting on Facebook.  The first thing to keep in mind is that everything you post gets stored in a database FOREVER!   You can delete old posts and photos from your facebook account .... but they will still remain in Facebook's database.  Here's a great article on just how long things remain in Facebook's database.

Another thing to keep in mind is that others are searching Facebook for more information about you. It's becoming commonplace for future employers, colleges and others to search Facebook accounts to determine if you're the right sort of person they'd like to admit into their organization.  And of course, lawyers and law enforcement will also search Facebook in the event a crime is committed.

If you have kids, nephews, nieces, etc. .... it's a good idea to teach them to keep things in mind when posting. For more information about the potential dangers of Facebook posting, click here.

For more information about your Facebook privacy, click here.

To learn how to stop Facebook from sharing your information on Google, click here.

Facebook Plans to Invade Your Privacy Again

Many Facebook users are already concerned about their privacy issues, but once again, Facebook doesn't seem to care.

As if they weren't already making enough money, they now plan to use you in their ads.  So every time you "like" a certain a product or "check in" to one of your favorite local coffee shops, etc., you risk having your profile connected with that merchant and published in one of FB's ads.  In Facebook's own words ....

"Facebook said the sponsored stories are all labeled as such. Users won't get any special notification that their posts have been sponsored and used as ads, and there's no option for users to opt out of the service".

The fact that FB users won't even be able to "opt-out" of this feature is really upsetting.  It will be interesting to see if Facebook does and about face on this one as users voice their complaints.

For more information about Facebook's plans to use you in their Ads, click here.

How to Delete Posts on Facebook

Every time you do something on Facebook, your activity is logged on your profile page.  For example, if you make changes to your profile settings, Facebooks shares this with the world on your profile page.  If you comment on another person's status or photo, it gets logged on your profile page so folks know what you're up to.

This may or may not bother you, especially if you're using Facebook for personal reasons.  But if you're a business owner, you might not want to share your "housekeeping" activity with others. Here's an example of the kind of activity posts I'm talking about.

As you can see, these kind of posts really have no value and on a business page, can stick out a like a sore thumb. Deleting them is easy.  Just follow the steps below:

1. Move your mouse to the top right corner of a post, and you will see an X appear (like the one circled in red below). 

2.  Click the X and a window will pop-up asking if you want to remove the post.
   Click REMOVE POST

You'll have to repeat these steps for every post you want to remove.  But you'll notice that your facebook page looks a lot cleaner with these types of posts removed from it. 

For information on removing game posts from Facebook, click here.

10 Privacy Settings for Facebook You Should Know

I know I've posted information about privacy settings on Facebook before, but they can't be emphasized enough.  While it's best to approach facebook from the standpoint that EVERYTHING is public, you do some control over what information is shared.

I stumbled across an article today titled, "10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know".  There are some excellent tips in this article and it's well worth your time to read.

For more information about Facebook Privacy, check out the links below. Of course, keep in mind that if you're a business owner on Facebook, you may not want to implement some of these privacy changes since they would reduce your visibility.

Facebook Places & Your Privacy

Changing Your Privacy Settings in Facebook

How to Stop Facebook From Sharing Info on Google

How to Hide Game Posts and People on Facebook

Once you start accumulating friends on Facebook, it's easy to get overwhelmed by some constant flood of posts (especially game posts).  The good news is that you can chose to hide posts (and people) that you really don't want to see on Facebook.

While hiding game posts is easy, hiding people can be a sensitive issue.  You might wonder why even have a person as friend if you don't want to see them or have any communication with them.  That's a good a question!  The answer is simple.  Some of us have relatives or friends that we find offensive (or at least find their posts offensive) and while we don't want to see them, we don't want to delete them from our friends list because we don't want to hurt their feelings. This happens a lot.  And whether you decide to delete somebody from your friend's list or chose to hide them instead, is totally up to you.

Game posts (and other posts, like horoscopes, questions, etc.) are another matter.  Some of the games (especially Zynga games like Mafia Wars and Farmville) require folks to post a lot a messages in order to solicit friends help in the games.  If you don't like to play games, seeing all these posts on your Facebook page can get annoying fast.  Here's how to hide them ...

Find one of the game post (example below).

If you move your cursor to the top right side of this post, you'll see an "X" appear in the top right corner of that post.  You won't see this "X" unless your cursor is hovering over the correct spot. .

Click that "X" and you'll see a group of buttons appear.

While you have 4 buttons (or choices on how to handle this post), I've only circled the two on the left.  The first button gives you the choice to hide this person, while the second button lets you hide all game posts from this game. 

The difference is this.  Hiding the person means that you will never see another post from this person again (not even status posts) .  Hiding the game post means that you will not see any posts relating to this game (Mafia Wars, in this example), but you will still see other posts this person makes.

When hiding game posts, you'll have to repeat the steps above to remove each game you're not interested in.  So for example, you'll have to repeat the process to hide all game posts for Mafia Wars, Farmville, Farm Town, Cafe World, etc.

For more information on deleting facebook posts, click here. 

Facebook Places & Your Privacy

The last couple of days there has been a post making the rounds on Facebook that reads ....

NOTICE!!! Facebook Launched Facebook Places yesterday. Anyone can find out where you are when you are logged in. It gives the actual address and map location of where you are as you use Facebook. Make sure your kids know. TO UNDO:go to"Account", "Account Settings."Notifications" then scroll ...down ......to "Places..." and uncheck the 2 boxes. Make sure to SAVE changes and re-post this for others info.

There seems to be some confusion about what Facebook Places are, and the steps given to change your "Places" settings in the message above are not accurate. So I thought I'd try and help explain it a bit better here.

To better explain Facebook Places, think about some of your friend's posts you may have seen on Facebook for a minute. I have a friend who uses Facebook Places and another similar application called, Loopt.  Whenever this friend (we'll call him, John) goes anywhere, he uses his cell phone to post a message on Facebook telling his friends where he is.  The post does show a map and address of the business name he is at.

This is what Facebook Places does.  The idea is that if you're out at the mall, or movies, etc., you can share that information with your friends on Facebook ... so that if any of them just happen to be at the same place you are, then you guys can meet up.  The original concept behind Facebook Places is harmless. 

Below is a typical post that shows up on Facebook. John uses Facebook Places to share that he's at Starbucks getting coffee.

However, like anything else on Facebook, there are potential drawbacks and dangers folks should be aware of. Keep in mind that NOTHING on facebook is really private.  And depending on your privacy settings, you may be sharing information about your whereabouts with more people than you think. 

Some of my friends, for example, accept strangers as friends for game purposes.  The more friends you have on Facebook playing certain games, the better the game experience.  If your privacy settings are set for "friends only", keep in mind that even these strangers are seeing your whereabouts on Facebook Places.  And if you think back to grade-school and "stranger, danger" for a moment ... you might want to keep in mind that strangers are unknown variables.  In other words, if they're strangers, we don't really know if any of them are predators or sexual molesters, etc.

While adults may be willing to take the risk having their whereabouts tracked, I'd urge caution for your kids.  It's not a good idea to let your kids broadcast their whereabouts on Facebook just in case that information is inadvertently falling into the wrong hands.

Now that you understand what Facebook Places are, and what dangers to watch for ... let's change the settings.


Notification Settings  for Facebook Places

First, Facebook Places is an application, which means you don't have to use it.  If you don't use it, Facebook won't post where you are (with the exception of tagging).

Secondly, the instructions in the warning message above are wrong.  "Notifications" are emails sent by Facebook to you.  Facebook lets you specify which emails you would like to receive from them.  By default, you get an email for everything on Facebook (you may have noticed that your inbox is constantly flooded by emails from Facebook).  Changing your "notification" settings will stop Facebook from emailing you for every little thing.

The Facebook Places Notifications, have two settings that you can change. The first setting mentions "tagging".  If one of your friends is at Starbucks (for example), and you happen to be with them ... your friend might use Facebook Places to tell their friends that YOU are there with them (this is tagging).  Although you and your friend might not have arrived together at Startbucks, but ran into each other there by accident ...and your friend tells facebook you're there using Facebook Places ... you've been tagged.

So it's not bad enough that your whereabouts can be inadvertently advertised to the world,  but as you can see, your friends can also advertise your whereabouts without your knowledge through a process called, tagging).

The second notification just means that Facebook will email or text you if somebody comments on a Facebook Places post that you've been tagged in.

So in other words, if you see a checkmark under the email icon or phone icon, Facebook will email or text you anytime somebody tags you in a Facebook Places post or comments on that post. Unchecking these boxes means that you will not receive these emails or text messages .... which in turn means that you might never know if you've been tagged on Facebook Places (not good).  It's better to leave these boxes checked so that at least you will know sooner than later if somebody is tagging you in Facebook Places.

Privacy Settings for Facebook Places

There are a couple of other settings you can change to better protect your privacy with regards to Facebook Places. If you click ACCOUNT and then PRIVACY SETTINGS, you'll see Facebook Places in the list of settings.

If you click the "Customize Links" (bottom circle on image above), you'll be able to change the privacy settings for Facebook Places. This setting allows you to basically decide who will know when you check in using Facebook Places (or your friends do it for you).  I've changed my setting so that only I will know.

This basically means that nobody but me will ever see that I've checked somewhere using Facebook Places. Notice, I've also unchecked the box below the "Places I check into" setting.  While I'm not a 100% sure, I also think this means that even if I'm tagged in Facebook Places, nobody else will see that either.

For more information about Facebook Places, click here.

For more information about Facebook Privacy, click here. 

How to Delete Your Facebook Account

Many people choose to remove themselves from Facebook for various reasons.  When you get ready to do this, there are two options available.   You can choose to Deactivate your account or Delete it all together.
The difference is that "deactivating" your account allows you to change your mind later, while "deleting" it doesn't.

Deactivating Facebook Account

Deactivating your account changes your settings so that nobody can see your profile or contact you.  You're sort of invisible as far as others are concerned, but you are still there. Deactivating your account is easy.  Just log into your account and ....

1. Click ACCOUNT and ACCOUNT SETTINGS.  
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click "Deactivate".

Note that one of the potential problems with "deactivation" is that Facebook is notorious for making concealed changes and it's possible that a future change may upset the balance with your deactivation settings and inadvertently make your profile public again.


Deleting Facebook Account

Deleting your Facebook account removes EVERYTHING - your profile, pictures, videos ... everything.  You will cease to exist on facebook.  If you decide go back, you'll have to create the account from scratch again.  Facebook really hates to lose people, so they tend to hide the information telling you how to delete your account.  But if you click the button below, you'll be directed to a page that will let you delete your Facebook Account.  Click the "Submit" button to delete the account.

Click here to Delete Your Facebook Account

For more information about deleting your facebook account, click here. 

How to Stop Facebook From Emailing You!

Tired emails from Facebook?  As great as facebook can be, having your inbox constantly flooded with facebook emails gets annoying pretty fast.   The good news is that you can configure facebook not to send those emails.  Here's how ....

1. Log into your Facebook Account
2. Select ACCOUNT and then ACCOUNT SETTINGS on the blue bar at the top of page.
3. Click the NOTIFICATIONS tab
4. Look at every setting and UNCHECK the box under the Email column (for one or more items listed). 
5. Click SAVE CHANGES at the bottom of the page. 

Facebook lets you specify which emails you'd like to receive (if any).  By default, every item is checked, which means you'll get loads of emails.  Facebook will not send emails for items NOT CHECKED.  

Changing Your Privacy Settings in Facebook

One of the biggest annoyances of Facebook is that they are constantly making changes - many of which affect your privacy.  Sadly, too often, you have learn about these changes from somebody else (not facebook).

Today, one of my friends mentioned that Facebook is now making our phone numbers public (by default) unless we go in and change them.   So I did some checking.

Facebook generally has 3 different options for privacy.  You can either share all of your information (including profile, photos, videos, etc.) with .....

• Everyone
• Friends only
• Friends of Friends

Unless you're a celebrity or business person, you typically don't want everybody to see your information.  So selecting the "Friends only" option is good for most Facebook information.  When sharing photos, I usually select "friends of friends" so that if my friend wants to share my photos with their friends, they'll be able to see them. 

However, there is definitely some information you want to keep just to yourself.  And you will have to manually set these options.

Changing your privacy settings in Facebook is tricky (especially since the steps keep changing).  But as of today, here's the steps.

1. Log into Facebook on select ACCOUNT and then PRIVACY SETTINGS (blue bar at the top of the page)
2. By default, you'll see a mixture of privacy settings.  For now, click FRIENDS ONLY on the left menu of options.

3. Now select click the link that reads, Custom Settings
4. If you've selected "Friends Only" previously, then you may only have to change the settings under "Contact Information" - but be sure to check every setting yourself to make sure you are only sharing information you want to with the people you want to.
5. To change your settings, click the gray button next to each setting and select the option you want.  If you want to set it so only you (and not your friends) see something, click CUSTOM and then use the pull-down arrow to select JUST YOU. Then click the SAVE SETTINGS button.
6. Repeat the process for each privacy setting.
   

Because Facebook has a habit of making frequent changes to their system, it would be a good idea to re-check these settings periodically to make sure they're configured correctly.

For more information about Facebook Privacy, click here.

Sharing Articles, Videos and More on Facebook

Facebook is more than just a social site for keeping in touch with friends.  It's also a great tool for sharing articles, videos and music with others.  One of the problems with today's media is that they often suppress stories that really should be shared.  Thanks to facebook, you can now share in the dissemination of information so as to make more people aware of various issues.

You've probably noticed that many news sites, YouTube, and other sites now have a "share on facebook" link on their content.  This is one way to share information easily.  But while these becoming more popular, there are still many sites that haven't incorporated them yet.

Facebook offers a great little "share bookmarklet" button which can be added to your browser's toolbar.  With this button, you can now share anything you come across on the internet with others.  This is a great tool for sharing articles, music and videos on facebook.

If you use Firefox to browse the internet, adding the share bookmarklet button is really easy. All you do, is drag the button from the web page below to your bookmark toolbar in Firefox and let go.

http://www.facebook.com/share_options.php

If you're using Internet Explorer or another browser, you might have to experiment a bit.  To date, I haven't been successful adding the bookmarklet to my bookmark toolbar in Internet Explorer.  And since I primarily use Firefox, I haven't spent a lot of time trying to figure it out. So if anybody else has been successful adding the tool to Internet Explorer (or any other browser), I hope they'll post the steps here.

Once the "share bookmarklet" button is on your bookmarks toolbar, all you need to do to share something is click the button.  If you're not logged into Facebook at the time, you'll be asked to login, and then the info will be shared.  If you like, you can even add a personal message to the post.

The cool thing is that even though you have to login to facebook to post, you really don't have to be on the site at the time.  In other words, you can be logged into a site (like Facebook) without actually being on the site. 

Enjoy!

How to Save Pictures in Facebook Email

Facebook has its own email program so you can easily email your facebook friends.  This is especially useful for those friends you might have an email address for.  And like other email programs, you can attach photos to your messages.  This is a great way to share profile pictures and other small images, but is not ideal for sending multiple images.

When a photo is sent via Facebook emaiil, it typically shows up in the message (as opposed to showing as an attachment).  To save this photo to your computer, just RIGHT CLICK on it and select SAVE IMAGE AS.
Be sure to note where the image is being saved to before you click to save it.  If in doubt, check your "Picture" folder, "Documents" folder or "Download folder.  You can also check the desktop.  These are the locations where most downloaded attachments are saved.

How to Earn Godfather Points in Mafia Wars

Many people will not be interested in this information ... but since a lot of my clients play Mafia Wars on Facebook (as well as other games), I get asked a lot of information about playing these games.  And as usual, i like to share information here so everybody can benefit it from it. 

Mafia Wars is one of the hottest games on Facebook (and MySpace). In short, you create a mobster character and play against other mobsters.  The cool thing is that any of your friends who are playing the game can be added to your mafia family, which in turn helps to make you a stronger character. There is a lot of interaction with your friends on this game, which is really what makes it so much fun.


Godfather points (also called, "Reward Points"), is one of the bonuses you earn while playing the game.  These points are then spent on various things including increasing the size of your mafia family and weapons.  They can also be used to buy other things (like increased energy, stamina and health, to name a few).

Getting enough Godfather points to buy things takes time, but you can earn more by doing a few things (short of literally buying them with your credit card). 

First, you earn 1 Godfather point every time you level up to an even level (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.).  This is the slowest way to earn Godfather points, but is guaranteed.

Next, you can earn Godfather points by playing the "Daily Chance" lottery tickets.  After you submit a ticket, you'll notice you've completed a level of the ticket mastery.  There are 6 levels to this mastery.  This means that to achieve the 6th level, you have to keep submitting tickets (one per day) without collecting the bonus after each submission.  By doing so, you will eventually get all 6 levels completed (if you start collecting at the beginning of the Mafia War week), and only then do you want to collect the bonus - which will be anywhere from 1 to 5 Godfather points (the amount varies).  This is one of the quickest ways to earn Godfather Reward Points.

Another way to earn  Godfather points is through special loot drops.  Every holiday and on special occasions, Mafia Wars offers special loot and jobs.  Oftentimes, Godfather points are offered as a bonus reward.  There is usually a limit of 10 reward points during any special loot offering, but you'd be surprise how much even this little bit helps!

The last way to earn Godfather points is through completing special offers (i.e., signing up for free trials of products) or buying them using a credit card. Unless you're one of those people with lots of disposable income, I do not recommend either of these last two options.

Needless to say, the first three methods are the best way of earning Godfather points in Mafia Wars.

How to Stop Facebook from Sharing Info on Google

As of today, Facebook now allows "indexing" on their site. This means that Facebook can now share info about you to Google, which can then appear in their search engines.  Needless to say, this is a BIG privacy issue!

The good news is that you can dis-allow indexing, and is definitely something you'll want to do (and make sure your kids to the same).

Here's how to stop Facebook from indexing your information:

1. Log into your Facebook account.
2. Go to your SETTINGS and select PRIVACY SETTINGS
3. Then click the SEARCH link
4. Uncheck the box that reads, "Allow Indexing".

That should do it.  However, while you're looking around your settings, you might also like to check some of the other settings as well to make sure nothing is being shared that you don't want.

For more information about Facebook Privacy, click here.

How to Remove "New Friends" Notices on Facebook

Facebook made some changes a couple of days ago to their news feed which has left folks seeing a lot of unwanted messages.  One of these messages relates to folks accepting friend requests.  The message looks like this:

"John Smith and Jane Doe are now friends".

If you don't want to see these messages, you can easily change this. To REMOVE the new friends notices from the news feed:

1. REST YOUR MOUSE (Don't Click) SETTINGS  on the top right blue bar on your facebook page and then click on PRIVACY SETTINGS
2. Then click the link that reads, NEWS FEED & WALL 
3. Uncheck 'Add a friend'.

The steps above will take care of the one notice. 

How to Hide Mafia Wars & Other Game Messages in Facebook

If you have a lot of friends on Facebook, chances are some of them are playing the farm games (Farm Town and Farmville) or Mafia Wars. These are some of the most popular games on Facebook.

But if you're not playing these games, it can get annoying to look at all the messages these games post as players advance in levels and complete other tasks.  

So what do you do when you really don't want to look at these messages but still see status messages from your friends?  Simple ... Just hide the messages from these games.

Find a farming or Mafia Wars post (or any other game) on your Facebook page.  On the right of it, you'll see the word, "Hide" and if you click it, you'll have to option to hide all messages from that person or just hide the game messages.

That's all there is too it.  Hiding farming and Mafia Wars messages can make Facebook more enjoyable for those who don't want to play those games.

How to Delete a Friend's List in Facebook

Facebook let's you separate your friends into categories. There are many different reasons why folks might want to do this.  But sometimes, you may also want to delete one of the lists you've created.   And doing so can be a tricky if you're new to Facebook, so I thought I'd share the secret with you.

A couple of days ago, I created a friends list called, "Mafia Friends" and added all of my friends to it that were playing Mafia Wars.  My hope was that I could use this list to publish the many Mafia achievement notices too (that way others won't have to look at them).  Sadly, Mafia Wars didn't give me the option to publish those posts to a specific friends list ... so I decided to delete it.

If you have a similar friends list you'd like to delete, here are the steps to do so.

1. At the top of your Facebook page, you'll see a blue toolbar.  Click "Friends" on it. 

2. When you get to the Friends page, on the left side of the screen look under the heading, "Lists" for the list you've created (and want to delete).  

In my case, the list I want to delete, is called, "Mafia Friends"

Click on the list you want to delete.

3. At the top of the next screen (above your friends), you'll see a gray button that reads, "Delete List".  Click on it to delete the list.  

Note that when you delete a friends list, the friends that were in this list are still your friends, they just don't belong to this list anymore.

UPDATE:  Feb, 17, 2010:

Naturally the Faecebook programmers decided they needed to change the layout once again on Facebook so these "how to" instructions are not completely accurate anymore - but the concept is the same. You can still create and delete special friends lists in the new Facebook.  But now, you'll want to follow the instructions below:

1. Click ACCOUNT and then EDIT FRIENDS (top right corner of Facebook screen)
2. Under "Lists" in the left navigation, click FRIENDS
3. The DELETE LIST button is now above your friends.

 Hopefully it will be a while before Facebook decides to change their layout again.

What is Facebook?

Facebook is a social networking website.  It's a place for folks to gather and chat with each other, play games, and stay informed on news and other stories.  Facebook is a competitor of MySpace (one of the first social networking sites created).

Signing up for an account is fast, easy and free.  Anybody can join, although it's generally recommended that kids under 13 don't.  But having said that, there are plenty of kids under 13 that are on Facebook.  If you'd like to sign up for a Facebook account go to www.Facebook.com.

Once you have an account setup, the next step is to find family and friends and add them to your "friends list".  This step is necessary if you want to communicate or see what your friends are up to on Facebook.  The idea behind this step is to offer some basic privacy.  This way only people you list as "friends" can see you stuff on Facebook.

To find friends on Facebook, type their name in the search box.  Finding friends on Facebook can be a bit tricky because often times there's several people with the same name.  So figuring out which person is the one you really want takes some extra steps sometimes.  It's helpful if that person uploaded a photo of themselves (called a "profile photo").  This is the first step to identifying people on Facebook.  If there isn't a photo, or there's still some doubt to the person identity, then you can click the "View Friends" link next to the person your interested in.  The advantage of this is to see if you know the same people they do, and if you do, chances are this is the person you're looking for.

Adding friends on Facebook is a two-step process. First you have to "add them as your friend" (which in turn sends a message to that person that you want to be friends) ... and they then have to "accept you" as their friend.   If they don't accept you (or chose to ignore your request), you won't be ablee to see their Facebook stuff (posts, photos, etc.).

Once you've added friends to facebook (and they've accepted you as their friend), you can view their "friends list" - which can help you find more friends.  Some of your friends may suggest more friends for you which you'll see on your home page of Facebook. It doesn't take long to add a bunch of friends on Facebook.

The next step is the social networking part.  Anytime your friends write or post something on their wall (i.e., their home page), you will see it.  This works in reverse too.  Anytime you write or post something on your own wall (or homepage), your friends will see it.  So far so good - just you and your friends are seeing each other stuff.  However, this is where the privacy thing first starts to get out of control.  If you comment on a friends post, not only will they see it, but so will their friends (who many not be on your friends list).  Even though people you don't know will see your comments, they still won't have access to your Facebook stuff if they are not on your friends list. 

But the basic rule on Facebook is this ... don't write, comment or share anything that you don't want the rest of the world seeing!  Although there is some basic privacy on Facebook, you have to conduct yourself as if there is none.

We'll talk more about privacy and danger issues related to Facebook later, but for now, I hope you have a better understanding of what Facebook is and how to get started using it.