It’s Facebook+ as Social Giant Adds Google+ Features

Facebook just announced with a blog post and big media splash that it’s now mimicking some Google+ features by letting users edit posts, and making it easier to control who sees their updates and view their profile as others do.

Well, actually, Facebook’s post makes no mention of its nascent rival from the search giant, but it’s pretty clear from today’s announcement that the current king of social network and online identity is paying close attention to Google’s attempt to create a different model for online identity and sharing. Google+ has done more than its share of mimicking Facebook — the stream and the inclusion of games. But it has also taken steps to differentiate itself from Facebook, most clearly in rejecting the binary Friend model at the heart of Facebook.

This wouldn’t be the first time Facebook has made big changes to keep up with a rival. In December 2009, Facebook tried to shift its users to posting status updates visible to the entire internet, as a way to compete with Twitter’s success.

This go-round it’s Google+ that’s being mimicked.

Here’s a rundown of some of the new features:

• Photos you are tagged in won’t show up in your stream until you approve them, and you can reject any tags other people put on your own photos. Conversely, you’ll also be able to tag a photo without having to be friends with that person. (A few things: You’ll need to turn on the approval system and tags you haven’t approved won’t go to your Wall or to your friends, but they will go out to the Wall and friends of the person who tagged you. But if you don’t approve the tag, the tag will no longer be in the tagger’s stream.) Largely the same as in Google+, though Google+ seems to default to allowing tags to be made public, subject to a user blocking them in the future.
• You’ll now easily be able to see how others view your profile. Just as you can in Google+.
• The settings for who can see every post is now visible on every post and image — like, um, in Google+. Over time this will include groups of people such as co-workers, Facebook groups or Friends lists. Exactly like you can do now with Circles in Google+. Posts visible to the internet are now called “Public” rather than “Everyone,” just like in Google+.
• You can now edit any post after the fact, something that’s annoyed users for years. This feature shipped with Google+.
• You can now ask someone to remove a photo of you or go nuclear and block a person who tagged you in a photo you didn’t like.

Facebook says the new features will roll out to all users in the next few days. Which is a plus.