LOS ANGELES — The new additions at Facebook over the past few days have been fast and furious, so let's take a quick minute to break them down.
1. Are you the sort who enjoys telling members of your social network what songs you're listening to or TV shows you're watching? If so, you're probably using apps like the popular Shazam to find them automatically for you.
Well, Facebook thinks it can make life easier for you, by not having to go to the bother of typing in the information anymore. A new tool, rolling out over coiming weeks, accesses the microphone from your smartphone, to pick out the name of the song, or TV show you're enjoying and automatically puts it into your post.
Why is Facebook doing this? To forge closer relationships with music and TV industries. If they know that you're a fan of Games of Thrones, or Justin Bieber, they have an easier sell to post ads from TV networks and record labels on your newsfeed as well. And perhaps ace apps like Shazam out of the picture.
2. As we all know, people use Facebook all the time to pick up on the opposite sex, find past boyfriends and girlfriends, and flirt like crazy.
Now Facebook is making it even easier. A new "Ask" button is being added to your profile that lets folks send you a direct message about your relationship — in other words, are you available?
Some words of advice: husbands and wives, if you don't want to start seeing these messages, or deal with the consequences of them, change your relationship status on Facebook. Make sure to say you're in one — otherwise, you might start receiving some thorny questions you don't want to deal with.
3. And speaking of privacy, Facebook also made minor changes to its settings for newbies. Until now, when folks signed up for Facebook, their posts were automatically directed to the public. But that confused folks, who didn't want all their stuff out there — not at first anyway — so Facebook is changing this. New posts will now only go to friends, until you go in and change your settings.
Folks have you looked at your Facebook settings in a while? The Memorial Day holiday might be a great time to take control of your settings and bring them up to date.
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