facebook used to allow users to change the opening screen from the default “all friends” to a subset created as a friend list. that ability got lost in one of the remodelings the service did recently, and the new navigation makes it a pain to access your friend lists. there is still a ridiculously simple way to open facebook to a friend list you choose.
why customize your facebook start page?
as facebook grows more popular, you may find yourself getting “friended” by people who it would be best to accept (professional contacts, etc.) while it’s fine to friend them (especially if you use facebook’s privacy settings to control each visitor’s experience), you don’t necessarily want to see all their posts. I have a group of friends whose content I want to see. as I am writing this, it occurs to me that it might be handy to have a “professional contacts” friend list that I can check from time to time to see if there’s any big news…I also have to update my post on using privacy settings!
customize your facebook start page (chrome browser)
these are for chrome, but as you’ll see, it’s easy to do in firefox too (as long as you are displaying the bookmark toolbar).
1) navigate to the friend list you want to show when you open facebook *
2) save the page as a bookmark
3) be sure to save the bookmark on the bookmark bar so it’s easy to get to (rather than buried in “other bookmarks”) you can edit the name of the bookmark, too. I named mine after the name of the friend list, in case I get ambitious and decide to create a fastlane(tm) to another one of my list.
4) just click on the bookmark to open facebook the way you want!
yes, I felt a little silly after bitching at facebook for removing the ability to set the default feed.
* still not using friend lists in facebook?
read my post on why you should use friend lists , but here is how to create them in most recent version of facebook:
1) go to the friends area and click on the “create new list”
2) name your list and click on friends to include them on that list.
3) click create list and you’re done! you may need to reload facebook to see your new list on the left.
are you using friend lists to manage your facebook stream? to customize privacy settings? something else? please share in the comments!
here is some more information on what you can do with bookmarklets!
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