Facebook launches their own URL shortener, much like http://bit.ly, http://tinyurl.com  and others, except for the fact that you can’t really use it yet, unless you use Facebook on a mobile device. Those devices are automatically using the shortener; I’m assuming it will be deployed to a wider audience, with tools, etc. at some point.

You can, however, hit http://fb.me/facebookusername and that will resolve ok. I have no idea if that URL will work – it just may belong to someone who grabbed that vanity URL. I do know that http://fb.me/brianhoney works just fine.

(I just checked, the facebookusername ID was not taken.)

Facebook Testing New URL Shortener, fb.me

Beware this phishing scam on Facebook. Don’t click on URLs in short messages like this, even if you know the sender. Their account may have already been compromised and is being used to further the scam.

Via Facebook Chat

Ok, this just doesn’t make any sense. With the new News Feed / Live Feed on Facebook, you just aren’t going to see all the people you used to see when you visit your Facebook page. Basically, it boils down to this: With News Feed, you’re seeing posts and info about the people Facebook deems “popular.” Live Feed gives you everything. Or something like that.

The interesting thing is, with your News Feed and Live Feed, there are options that control who appears on either Feed, and for Live Feed, a setting for how many of your contacts will appear on your Live Feed. So Live Feed shows you everything, but just from a paltry 250 of your contacts.

(Maybe you have less than 250 contacts. In that case don’t be offended by my “paltry” characterization of your number of contacts. It doesn’t reflect on you as a person or your popularity. I have more than 250, but not nearly as many as some people do, despite me being a Facebook “whore” according to my wife.)

Now, back on track. Click on News Feed to make it active. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Edit Options in the light blue shaded box, just above the omnipresent Facebook footer stuff. This is the window you will see, or something similar.

Maybe my wife is right… I only recognize two of those names, but they are all my “friends.” Use this window to add other contacts that you think should appear in your News Feed.

Ok, let’s check out the Live Feed options. And this is the part that doesn’t make any sense. Notice the title of the window above: Hidden from News Feed. Then pay attention to the title of the next settings window.

Click Live Feed to make it active, then again scroll to the very bottom of the page, and click Edit Options. You’ll see this window, or something very similar, titled (duh!) News Feed Options. After clicking Live Feed, then Edit Options, you get the News Feed Options window. (!)

Now we’re getting somewhere. If you are not seeing as many of your regular friends as you think you should, in your Live Feed, it could be that they’re outside the 250 friends that Facebook defaults to for your Live Feed. Increase the number of friends to see more stuff on the Live Feed, or use the handy Show More and Hide areas to specify friends in either. You can ever view the Recommended Friends that Facebook currently feeds to your Live Feed.

The preceding is a long-winded response to a friend’s post about not seeing as many friends in his feed as he’s used to… It will likely only ever be read by him, and no one else. Thanks for tuning in.

Hat tip: To quickly scroll the bottom of ANY web page, hit the End button on your keyboard. Conversely, if you are down the page a bit (or at the end) hit the Home button to go to the top.

I just noticed something particularly aggravating about the Facebook user interface (UI) that has never come to my attention before. Now, this is an issue with the UI, not with the Wall, and how information is streamed on it, related to the big Facebook update a few weeks ago. For a website with such a good UI – aside from not being able to change that blue color, but even that is doable if you load up certain Greasemonkey scripts or do some other tricks – this one is so basic, I was truly surprised when I found it.

I usually don’t send or receive much Facebook email. I’ll hit the Inbox, delete a message, or reply to one, but not that often. This morning however, I typed a rather longish message to a long-time friend of mine, as Facebook is the best way for me to reach him these days, and when I was finished, I did my standard “time to send” keystroke and hit the spacebar. When I’m in Gmail, this is Tab to the Send key, then Spacebar to activate. This time, in Facebook, that keystroke took me right to the Cancel button, and when I activated it – I lost my entire message.

Behold the Facebook Compose Message dialog. Strangely enough, after typing in the Message area, hitting Tab takes you directly to the Cancel button. While not a crime against humanity, or even a shocking display of rudeness, I feel this is a glaring problem with this UI element.

Now it could be that I am the only one to notice this (which I doubt) or that I’m the only designer/UI person to actually have a problem with it (also doubtful) but I’m willing to bet that some typical users have been bitten by this as well. And I further bet they haven’t like it one bit.

I can think of very few forms or dialog boxes where after interacting with the last prompt, hitting the Tab key will take you to the Cancel button. Am I alone in having a problem with this? Rant off!