The recent Facebook email SNAFU highlights an ongoing problem at Facebook; they are not eating their own dog food.
Facebook holds itself out as making the world more “open and connected,” yet Facebook often makes changes that drastically affect its users without the slightest bit of open communication. If Facebook were really concerned with openness, they wouldn’t consistently deceive users. They would communicate changes before it happened.
Consider how Facebook handled Timeline. They communicated that the changes were coming, gave users ample time to make the switch on their own and left no doubt that Timeline would be coming one way or the other. That is a good example of how Facebook could handle every change.
Now consider how this email change happened. Facebook wanted everyone using their email messaging system. Rather than communicating the benefit and selling the users on the idea, they just switched everyone’s email addresses overnight resulting in mass address book issues. There was no reason to do this.
- It is not the open and connected way of making changes.
- It did more harm than good for the company. It added to the perception that Facebook is shady and doesn’t care about its users, and it has probably angered more people than it got to switch to Facebook email.
Think about when Facebook switched various privacy settings to public by default without any notice in Nov 2009. What does that accomplish for them? Does it build trust? Is it the open thing to do?
Facebook should read and consider the meaning of their mantra “open and connected” prior to making any decision that could affect users.