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Facebook’s been evolving right before our very eyes. It started back in March, when Facebook rolled out a new homepage design and redesigned Facebook Pages. At the same time, they started announcing changes to open up the platform: public profiles, profile fans, public status updates, real-time search, and earlier this morning, Facebook Lite. Facebook’s been busy.

All of this is part of a process we sometimes describe as Twitterification. Facebook is opening up in parts in order to combat Twitter – another reason why Facebook completed that blockbuster acquisition of FriendFeed. But since these privacy and profile changes have occurred in parts, they have created a lot of confusion.

That’s why we have written this guide to Facebook’s most recent changes to profiles, status updates, and privacy features. We highlight the big changes and explain what is likely to come next. Here’s how the new Facebook is set up:

Profiles

In terms of privacy, there have been two major changes. The first one, which occurred back in March, is that you can make your Facebook profile public. You can make all elements or just parts of your profile public: photos, details, videos, work information, etc. This can be managed in Facebook’s profile privacy settings.

The other major change to profiles, announced in June, is the ability to have profile fans. It’s just like Twitter followers: they will be able to see your updates and info without you friending them. This feature is not yet launched, but will be coming soon:

Status Updates

Status updates have also changed. In the past, only your friends could see your publish posts and status updates (you know, that big “What’s on your mind?” box at the top of the homepage). But as of June, you have the ability to post status updates not only to your friends, but to friends of friends, to your networks, and to everyone. You may need to activate it in your Facebook profile privacy settings.

You’ll also notice that there’s a custom setting. You can post status updates just to specific friend lists. For example, post a personal update just to your top 20 friends, or you can let everyone on Facebook find your update about your big tweetup next week.

The change brings it more in line with Twitter, which is public by default. Really though, this was the prelude to yesterday’s big Facebook Search launch.

Realtime Search

As we covered in-depth yesterday, Facebook is currently rolling out realtime search. While the old search only could find things like apps, groups, and people, the new search is like a beefed-up version of Twitter Search. The new search crawls the last 30 days of news feed activity – photos, notes, images, videos, links, and status updates – and lets users search them all by keyword. Want to learn more about the FriendFeed acquisition or chatter about Mashable on Facebook? The new search helps:

So where does Facebook privacy play into all of this? The search covers all of your friends, but on top of that, it searches all public profiles and public status updates. So if you want to be found in search, you better change your Facebook privacy settings. Remember though, what you say will be visible to everyone then, so don’t say anything you wouldn’t discuss on your public Twitter feed.

What’s Next?

Facebook’s many new features can all be described with one word: openness. It has seen Twitter steal the spotlight and the attention, especially when breaking news and world events occur. Facebook, with its hundreds of millions of users, should be able to do the same thing, but cannot due to the network restrictions that have existed since Facebook’s inception as a college social network.

Facebook will encourage all of its users to join in on the world conversation by opening up their profiles, making their status updates public, and promoting its new realtime search tool. It will also promote users having conversations around news items – a la FriendFeed. The acquisition provides Facebook with a lot of technology that focuses on realtime updates, public conversations, and in-depth discussions. You will see integration with the world’s largest social network very quickly. FriendFeed may even become the model for public discussions on Facebook.

Luckily, you have a choice in these matters. If you want to keep your Facebook profile private between you and your closest friends, you can – just adjust your privacy settings to your network of friends. However, as Facebook opens up more and more, the pressure to open up your profile will increase as well. So prepare yourself for a new Facebook, one that intends to take down Twitter and even give Google a run for its money.

Tags: facebook, twitter

There may be one more sure thing in life beyond death and taxes: spammers. Twitter is of course no stranger to the scourge, and TweetBlocker is a new tool designed to help you get rid of any spam accounts you’ve inadvertently managed to follow, whether in haste or through the use of auto-follow.

Using a combination of blacklist-style identification and Bayesian algorithms for identifying spammers from the contents of their tweets, this app from the folks at HashRocket adds another tool to our collective belts for fighting back against Twitter spam.

After authenticating your Twitter account, TweetBlocker generates a list of your followers with a numerical score as well as at-a-glance letter grades according to how spammy the service thinks they are, with A+ being the best and F the worst. From here you have the option to block or simply unfollow each account. Rolling over a user’s icon pops up a list of their most recent tweets so you can quickly double check any accounts you might be on the fence about.

In our tests we did find some false positives in our list as well as some questionably low grades for relatively popular accounts (see above — blip.tv passes with flying colors while Blip.fm seems dangerously close to repeating the fourth grade), but the recent tweets rollover function should help you make sure you’re not inadvertently blocking or unfollowing someone having a momentary lapse of reason or temporary absence from Twitter.

And as far as tools for helping cut the spam go, another addition to the arsenal — particularly one so easy to use — is entirely welcome to the Twitterverse.

Tags: auto-follow, spam, TweetBlocker, twitter

This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark.

Name: Tweetboard

Quick Pitch: Tweetboard is a Twitter-powered “microforum,” and runs on your site rather than being a “destination” site.

Genius Idea: Tweetboard is for website owners who want to display threaded Twitter conversations on their own site and create an instant Twitter-powered forum, where all tweets from the Tweetboard link back to the publisher.

The unobtrusive Tweetboard forum sits on the left hand side of your screen as a small tab indicating the count of tweets since a viewer’s last visit. Visitors can then click the tab and the Tweetboard will slide open with a view of all tweets pulled in from your Twitter stream, threaded appropriately. Tweets pulled in include your account updates and @replies to other users. Replies, however, show up in context of the original message, so as to create a back-and-forth conversation-like feel.

This conversation format spontaneously adds a Twitter friendly-forum to display chatter between you and your followers, friends, customers, and would-be clients. Users can even use Sign in with Twitter to tweet from the page, expand replies, add their own reply, and filter tweets by date, last activity, and most active.

Tweetboard is a pretty nifty addition that many a brand or startup — or even celebrities that want to have a fan forum — should consider implementing on their site. Not only does it reinforce that you have a strong Twitter presence, but it could help reduce support emails, increase your reach across the Twittersphere, grow site traffic, and help new customers/users get engaged.

140ware, the company behind Tweetboard, is automatically approving alpha invite requests to Twitterers who make their request to @140ware in this form: “Requesting an invite for Tweetboard Alpha (http://tweetboard.com) by @140ware, for my site: http://ReplaceWithYourURL.com.”

Sponsored by Microsoft BizSpark

BizSpark is a startup program that gives you three-year access to the latest Microsoft development tools, as well as connecting you to a nationwide network of investors and incubators. There are no upfront costs, so if your business is privately owned, less than three years old, and generates less than U.S.$1 million in annual revenue, you can sign up today.

Entrepreneurs can take advantage of the Azure Services platform for their website hosting and storage needs. Microsoft recently announced the “new CloudApp()” contest – use the Azure Services Platform for hosting your .NET or PHP app, and you could be the lucky winner of a USD 5000* (please see website for official rules and guidelines).”

Tags: forum, tweetboard, twitter