Facebook Simplifies Friend Grouping with Smart Lists

By Paul Thomson :: 6:28 PM

Facebook has announced an easier way for users to share photos, posts and updates with a smaller, more limited group of friends.

A feature called Smart Lists began to roll out last week. It automatically groups friends, and is similar to the Circles concept on Google+ .

Facebook will now automatically group your friends based on whether they work at the same place with you you, are related to you, went to school with you or live nearby.You will also have the ability to share information with just these Smart Lists rather than all of friends list.

You can now also distinguish between close friends and acquaintances. Setting up a “close friends” list will make updates from those people show up more often in your timeline, while those from acquaintances will show up with less frequency.

The new features are a direct response to the granular settings allowed by Google+, and is part of Facebook’s strategy to give its users better control over how they use the network.