Product developers know that changes to a product, no matter how small, will upset a core group of users. The difference between a soap formula and a website is the ability to hack your way back to the way it was before changes. Below are some common Facebook hacks.
My pet peeve: how pictures now render
A pop up within Facebook? On a black lightbox? Another ad served to me? The inability to right click and save a picture? Seriously? Grr. This feature alone caused me to seek out my own hacks and thank goodness others are annoyed too.
Enter the Google Chrome browser extension, “Revert Photo Viewer” which puts it back to the way it was- white background and a page on its own. Just the way I like it.
Pressing “enter” submits updates
I personally love that on Facebook, when you hit enter, your update is posted- it’s a huge time saver for me and seems much more intuitive, but people are pissed about not having that old submit button.
For those annoyed by this feature, you should know that you have to hit “Shift+Enter” at the same time to start a new line. It’s a classic hack for many software programs and one that you should get in the habit of using if you don’t want what you’re saying to be submitted, rather you want a line break.
News feed doesn’t show everyone anymore!
This one is a big shock to a lot of people who feel that people have abandoned Facebook and one I get asked about all the time. Facebook changed your news feed to feature only the people you most frequently interact with. Some love it because they really are only there to talk to their 10 best friends and don’t care about MeMaw’s Farmville while others (like me) want an overview of what everyone is doing at a glance.
To change it back so you can see all of your friends’ updates, click the triangle next to “Most Recent” on top of your news feed, select “Edit Options” and in the gray dropdown menu, select “All of your friends and pages” then save your changes. Voila!
New privacy options
Although the uproar over privacy is nothing new, there are two tricks you can do to get around some of the privacy issues.
First of all, with the “Facebook Disconnect” Google Chrome browser extension, you can stop Facebook from tracking the webpages you go to. Many applications don’t work on Facebook if you don’t grant permission to track, so this is one way around that. Keep your curtains drawn close, you know?
Secondly, for those of you that are hardcore (me excluded), check out the “Facebook Ad Block” Chrome extension which is pretty self explanatory. I don’t use this one because I actually like ads, I’m a marketing geek. But there are many of you who love the idea of an ad-free Facebook experience.
Which will you use?
Do any of these hacks have your name on them? There are literally hundreds of Facebook tricks and hacks, these are just the ones we tell people about the most- share yours with us in the comments!
