The Cycle

Facebook profiles are often very telling of the individual’s character, style, and persona (I have a picture of a baby on mine, go figure). And prospective employers will soon be able to tell (or assume) by looking at a person’s profile, these qualities (represented by what you choose to post as your picture).

The social networking site is allowing external search sites like Google file all its public search listings which will show the individual’s name and thumbnail picture. When logging into their accounts today, Facebook users will be presented with the choice of .

“We think this will help more people connect and find value from Facebook without exposing any actual profile information or data,” Philip Fung said on the Facebook blog.

“The public search listing contains less information than someone could find right after signing up anyway, so we’re not exposing any new information, and you have complete control over your public search listing,” he said.

Past Facebook changes have caused controversy, especially the feature that announced all the changes one made to a profile to all of his or her “friends.” After one user complained of the “stalkeriffic” site component, the site’s creator Mark Zuckerberg made an apology.

I’m not sure about others but I don’t think the prospect of having my “face” all over Google really thrills me. I’m more of a private user.

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