Sebbie on the Webbie

On Facebook, you can search for people you know through your web based email address book (such as Gmail). You can then send a friend request or invitation to all people or selected people on that address book. If the person is a member, a request is sent to add them to your friends list. If not, the information is stored until that person joins, when a friend request is automatically sent to the person. That is why so many people find you so fast when you join. There is one negative about this though. You don’t necessarily want to have all these people on your friends list.

A simple way to avoid this without going to technical details about privacy settings and the sort is simply use an email address you wouldn’t normally use – create a new one for Facebook only if you want to. Then YOU can go around looking for people YOU want to add and not be ambushed by your bosses ex-wife’s crazy cousin.

Clearly if people will search for you using your name they will find you by default, but it is fairly unlikely your bosses ex-wife’s crazy cousin will be searching for you like that. By the time she finds you, you have learned that it’s okay to decline a friendship invitation and it won’t be such a big deal any more.