The Facebook app for the iPhone is pretty good but lacks many simple features available on the web version.  Joe Hewitt, co-founder of Facebook, posted what the upcoming Facebook 3.0 iPhone app will include.  I’m excited to finally be able to view “Pages” and notifications being linked to comments so it’s easier to reply.  Here is a full list of what is coming in the 3.0 update.

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1. The “new” News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

Hewitt says that he is about 98% finished with the app; he should be submitting it to Apple for approval soon.

According to Hewitt, everyone is asking for push notifications, but they will not be implimented in this 3.0 update, more likely a 3.1 update later this summer.  I’m not sure if I would want push notifications with Facebook.  If so, I would want to have a lot of control as to what pops up on my iPhone.  If every new comment or every time someone sent me a “keg” triggered a notification on my screen, I would never be able to get anything done on my iPhone.

Facebook recently allowed users and page owners to register their own URL addresses such as http://www.facebook.com/rotilda to make it easier for people to share and find profiles and pages.  All normal user profiles were able to switch their URL addresses immediately but fan pages had restrictions.  Pages had to have at least 1000 fans in order to pick their unique URLs.  Facebook has significantly lowered the restriction to a minimum of 25 fans starting tonight at 11.59pm EDT.

The Facebook help section reads:

Your Facebook Page must meet two requirements: it must have been live on Facebook prior to the May 31, 2009 cut-off date and have had a minimum 1,000 fans at that time.

This limitation is temporary. All Pages created after May 31, 2009 or that had less than 1,000 fans on that day will be eligible to claim usernames on Sunday, June 28, 2009 if they have more than 25 fans.

Do you tweet?  I recently asked my freshman writing students this question, and was surprised to find that none of them knew what I was talking about.  Twitter had become, I had supposed, a phenomenon that everyone under the age of fifty would certainly know about.  Even I know about it, and that’s saying quite a lot, since I am slow to acknowledge and quick to dismiss many of the Myspace-type networks after the initial excitement wears off–not so with Twitter.

What exactly is the difference between tweeting and posting information on other “social networks”?  Because of the limited number of characters allowed on each “tweet”, Twitter is not a place to banter back and forth about your latest romantic relationship or wish a friend Happy Birthday and find out details about the upcoming party.  These snippets of information must be eye-catching, informative, and meaningful in order to get more than a quick dismissive glance.  Additionally, there is perhaps no better way to connect with people who are actually interested in the same things, whether those things are as trivial as cooking techniques or as critical as world hunger.

Recently, I taught a poem in my freshman literature course by Allen Ginsberg.  Having never taught this poem or author before, I simply searched on Twitter for references to Ginsberg and connected with other professors, students, and casual readers.  I began following some of my new “friends” and received input on teaching and reading one of our greatest American writers.  Sharing information is the key to the success of Twitter, but unlike other networking ideas, the information is completely controlled by the user.  Not interested in celebrity tweets?  Fine, Twitter allows you to block their often self-promoting advertisements; however, if you are interested in witty and often hilarious one-liners and instant links to funny videos, then following Weird Al Yankovic is something to lighten up your otherwise dark and dreary day.

Ultimately, Twitter will not only survive simply because of the unbelievable opportunity to connect with anyone in the world within seconds, but also because of the informational control placed in the user’s hands.  For those of you still not tweeting, I suggest you give it a try; Weird Al is waiting.

Follow me:  @teachgirl521