Many Facebook users will be relieved to know that the ability to hyperlink to names and pages in status updates will return shortly.
The feature, which lets you hyperlink to friends and ‘liked’ pages by using the @ in a status or wall update, was launched in September last year. Since then it’s become popular with Facebook’s 500 million members, who value the ability to tag their friends in updates, ensuring that the right people will see their content. It’s also been a boon for page administrators who value the ability to easily update other page owners when they link to their content.
However, many Facebook users reported that the hyperlinking feature no longer worked after they received access to the beta rollout of Facebook Questions. The change coincided with the launch of the new publisher tool, which creates more separation between status updates, links, photos and questions and means that status and wall updates now require two clicks rather than one.
The loss of the hyperlinking feature prompted furious comments from users - such as this one from Dayngr: “Tagging in status messages is gone now AND posting pictures of pages doesn’t seem to work either. So much for functionality!” Another user, Savanah Brentnall, commented: “As usual, Facebook didn’t consult with any of its top page admins to see how these changes would affect people in the real world. Dealing with Facebook is like dealing with an incompetent version of Microsoft–all of the arrogance and none of the ability. As an admin on many different high-profile pages, I can’t wait until there’s an alternative.”
However, a Facebook spokeswoman has said the loss of the hyperlinking feature is a temporary bug. “The hyperlink issue is a bug that we are working on fixing and the feature will return shortly,” she said.
Source: All Facebook
Friday, July 30, 2010