2:56 pm
Jack
NEW YORK – In a nod to rival social networks, Facebook is letting its users "subscribe" to news from other members — even those they are not friends with.
Facebook said in a blog post Wednesday that
it is rolling out the "subscribe" button to users in the next few days.
This will let people hear from Facebook users they don't know
personally — such as celebrities or political figures.
Public
figures have already been using Facebook to send news to their fans by
creating public pages. By clicking the "like" button on these pages,
users can see the updates in their own news feed.
The
new button will let people bypass creating public pages and send
updates directly to their subscribers. Only updates that users publicly
share will be seen by subscribers, and Facebook says the feature is
entirely optional. Twitter and Google+ already have similar "follow"
features.
Facebook's button is a bit more
customizable, as Facebook features tend to be. Once you subscribe to
someone's posts, you can decide whether to see all updates, most updates
(which is what you normally see now), or only important updates, such
as a marriage or a new job. You can even decide what form of updates you
want to see — photos only, games only or some combination.
Users have to choose, or "opt in" to allowing subscribers.
