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facebook groups

Docs.com Now Supports Facebook Groups

November 14, 2010

Facebook got into a partnership with Microsoft’s Fuse labs in April and came out with a platform called Docs.com.

Last month Facebook updated a few features that included the new Facebook Groups, which Docs.com incorporated in a recent update.

fb DocsGroupIntegration Docs.com Now Supports Facebook GroupsNow, Docs.com supports Facebook Groups allowing users to easily share Word, Excel and PowerPoint files with other group members. Users also have the ability to provide editing ability to group members, and it is also very possible to keep doc completely private. The service of Docs.com extends beyond sharing documents. Whenever a document is share, newsfeed is generated on the Group’s wall as well as on the members’ wall. And as with any newsfeed, users can comment on it.

Microsoft’s Pat Kinsel calls the integration of Facebook Groups a “giant step toward [their] vision for social productivity.”

It is also highly anticipated that Facebook might launch its own email service on Monday. If it does, then we can also expect Doc.com to integrate the email platform soon.

According to Lee Mathews at DownloadSquad, “If Docs.com and Facebook continue their current course, the combined platform will become a formidable opponent for services like Zoho and Google Docs,” adding yet another service to the list for both Facebook and Google to fight over.

Have you tried Docs.com? You don’t need to have Microsoft Office installed on your computer. You can take advantage of the features of Docs.com by utilizing Microsoft Office Web Apps.

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Features Of The New Version Of Facebook Groups.

October 9, 2010

The new version of Groups announced by Facebook is making quite a lot of news. We have also cover about it earlier.

Getting added to different kind of groups without our permission can be quite frustrating and that is a down-side of the latest update on Groups. But, let’s have a look at the other offerings of the new Groups.

Facebook wants to provide a easy way to “build a space for important groups of people in [our] life”. These groups can be anything that is near to you like – family, close buddies, sports team, band, book club, or anything. All you have to do is create a group, add the related people and start sharing.

Groups will be a “Closed” by default. That means, only members of the groups will be able to see what’s going on within the group. Whenever anyone post something new, all the members of the group will be notified. So, for (from Facebook blog) example, you don’t have to worry about whether your parents saw the pictures of their grandchilds you posted and you can also be assured about who sees what you post.

The new Groups comes with a group chat now. Now, you will be able to chat will everyone in your group at once. So, sharing and communication within your group will be so much easier than before.

Groups can also be used as a replacement for mailing list by setting up your group to send an email to you whenever anyone posts in it. Group email address can also be set to allow members to keep in touch even if they’re not on Facebook, as emails they send will turn into posts in the group.

As said above, Groups will be Closed by defualt on creation. This means only the members of the group will be able to see the contents of the group. The name of the group and its members will still be visible to everyone. By using the group settings, you can make your group as “Secret” if you don’t want your group and its members to be listed to others. If you want it to be more open to others, then you can use the “Open” settings.

With the new Groups, like Facebook wants, you can have you own online space where you will have a whole new experience of sharing and communication with a close group of people.

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Facebook’s New Groups Feature Receives Criticism

October 8, 2010

The new feature regarding groups announced by Facebook on Wednesday left many confused and unhappy.

The new groups feature lets users add existing friends to groups without their permission. This will become a major headache when you start getting added to different groups without your permission.

If you get added to some groups you don’t want to, you can still unsubscribe or leave the group. But then again, the problem here is that particular friend who added you to the group will not only be unable to add you to that group again but to any other groups as well.

Wile many are confused about getting welcome notifications from different groups they never heard of, many are concerned about getting added to offensive groups without their knowledge. Yes, you will get a notification when you are added to any group and opt-out anytime you want, but only few stay online all the time. If you are a straight person, you sure don’t want to be a member of some “North American Man-Boy Love Association (NAMBLA)” overnight!!

“There is no opt-in,” technology entrepreneur and blogger Jason Calcanis complained, noting that he is not – and has no interest in being – a NAMBLA member.

“I’ve now been assigned to a group that advocates…well…ummm…You can look it up; it’s very bad.”

On Facebook, there are also other ways, which can be as bad or worst than the new groups feature like revealing friend’s location through Facebook Places or exposing a friends data to third parties by granting permission to an application to access your profile data. But, If you have 500 plus friends on Facebook, just imagine how many groups you will get added into and the headache of dealing with all the email notifications every time any member of the groups post something new.

A new feature is always welcomed, but the latest groups feature update that was said to give users more control doesn’t seem so. It sure needs some fine tuning, and the ability to opt-in to any group tops the list.

So guys, does the new groups update bother you?

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