News Feed Controls = Good News

I'm really happy Facebook is adding more controls and functionality to the News Feed. I feel horrible saying this but I hope they do take on Friendfeed more directly. It's been a great site for me in terms of syndication and whenever I go there I like it-- particularly the commenting features. But I agree with others who say it's not a Twitter substitute and frankly, I don't have the time to work another site into my everyday routine. (I know a TON of Friendfeed fans disagree...so it's not meant a condemnation of the site. Even though I invited the founders on Tech Ticker and they didn't even respond!)

In general, I am loving the new Facebook UI. I love that the site has been de-cluttered and I love the central "Wall." My only issue is the continued neglect of the fan pages!! At least in the old profile page there was the pages box. I can't seem to find an easy, one-click way to get to my fan page which is frustrating because people leave messages for me there. It's doubly frustrating because I leave messages back and people never see them. What is the point?

I've been asking, but please please PLEASE Facebook work the fan pages into the News Feed! It's one of the only real half-baked features they've done, and I always wonder why it gets no love. It reads like it was a half-hearted attempt to give people MySpace-like features (since businesses can't have profiles on Facebook, for instance) but it's as if Facebook doesn't really want that part of its audience to grow. Hmph.