In a move that many will call an attempt to compete with unique features of Google+, Facebook made some major upgrades to sharing and privacy controls earlier today. The focus is to give users more power over the specific friends they share content with.

Privacy

One of the changes Facebook made to privacy lies within profile settings. After the roll out is complete, a privacy drop down menu will appear next to each specific type of  content. For example, this makes it possible to share your music interests with all of your friends and movies with only a few, if you choose to take advantage of the new options.

Additionally, Facebook is greatly improving tagging. As of now, if someone tags you in a photo, you have absolutely no control over the tag appearing on your profile. Pending posts will allow anyone to approve or deny any posts or tags involving them. Users can enable or disable this in the settings. And if you choose to remove a tag, you can also now optionally send a message to that person requesting they take the photo down or just block them altogether.

Sharing

Personally, I am more excited about all the new possibilities with sharing content. I have long requested this feature and it is finally here: the ability to change the privacy settings for a specific post after I published it on Facebook. People that commonly make the mistake of sharing something with the wrong people will certainly rejoice over this.

Previously only on mobile devices, location is now making its way to the desktop too. As part of a slightly revamped user interface for the sharing box at the top of the news feed, Facebook dedicates two buttons for tagging friends and checking into a location.

Facebook certainly did not take too much time to stay on par with the latest and greatest in Google+ like location and privacy controls. The new features are welcome additions to the popular social network. The roll out to users begins in a few days.

Links: About Control | About Tagging | About Sharing