Facebook fleshing out fan, Community Pages

Community Pages to be "the best collection of shared knowledge on a topic"

Foreshadowing an avalanche of updates to be unveiled this week, Facebook just announced a complete reworking of how connections will work on its site--connections to topics, connections to regions, connections to interests, and more.

First, Facebook is launching a completely new category called Community Pages, meant to be "the best collection of shared knowledge on [some] topic." Don't be surprised if this sounds a lot like Wikipedia, since Facebook Community Pages at the moment consist of information taken directly from wiki pages on the related topic. The feature is currently in beta, but users can already "Like" over 6.5 million available Community Pages. Facebook has future plans to allow users to edit and add to existing pages.

Additionally, in an effort to make user profiles more interactive, Facebook will be converting all the interests users have listed in their profiles to actual links that lead to the fan page for that particular interest. For example, a user who long ago listed their music interests as Wilco, Radiohead, and Weezer can now actually be a fan of all these pages by opting-in next time he or she signs into the site.

Pages now have buttons that read "Like" instead of "Become a Fan," both simplifying and clarifying the very purpose of Facebook Pages. To remove "Liked" Pages from a profile, one need only edit their actual profile or go to the Page itself and "Unlike" it.

Always with privacy in mind, Facebook has also provided options for enabling and disabling who can see certain parts of one's profile. Unfortunately, this won't stop a user from showing up on the list of fans on the actual Page.

All in all, it seems that Facebook is still trying to sort out exactly how all these different kinds of connections will function in terms of user interaction. Today's updates are just one step in the right direction.