The Private Social Network

I remember a few years ago when Friendster and MySpace was all the craze. The young and old generation found it “cool” to have an account to be able to interact with other individuals. Due to the HTML coding option of these social networking sites, it was even possible to decorate one’s page and reorganize the bars and other pictures. The HTML coding was so simple and easy to use, that even a person completely unfamiliar with such processes could go to any other design hosting sites, copy a design HTML code he/she finds in the site, and past the same on his own profile.

Fast forward a few years later and Facebook enters the picture. Facebook no longer allows the editing of the HTML coding of the site. All profiles in Facebook have the same format and design, the blue and white colour scheme, and all boxes are fixed in their respective positions. A lot of people question why the HTML coding feature was removed? If the user did not wish to use the HTML coding, why deprive others of their fun?

The answer to these questions is not to keep things simple, but for the privacy of the users. Due to the freedom of HTML coding, a skilled user could in fact create mischievous to even dangerous HTML codes that could affect users visiting their profile, most of the time even without their knowledge. Such codes could be from telling the main profile user who has been visiting his profile, to even using cookies to obtain valuable information from their profile users. To prevent such mischief, Friendster and MySpace had to constantly reset the HTML codes of their sites and update their security to prevent certain codes from being used. Of course the mischievous HTML community could find ways to get around such security protocols almost as fast as the social networking sites could update themselves. The more dangerous part is that these codes were accessible to anyone who took the time to find them in the internet, with several forums dedicated to providing such codes to their community. Therefore this is the reason why Facebook chose to just do away with the freedom to create one’s own codes on his/her profile and stick with a standard outlay.

So if you ever wonder to yourself again why Facebook seems so boring in a creative point of view, just remember that it is a small price to pay for the protection of your privacy.