On the official Facebook blog, the social networking giant has announced two subtle changes, but ones that will make it easier to interact with your friends, colleagues, and clients, as well as making it easier for old friends to find you again.

Changes to Facebook’s Publisher

Facebook is changing the way their ‘publisher’  works – that’s the section of your home page where you change your status message and upload photos and video to your wall – but they’re only changing it slightly.

They’re offering you a great deal more control over who sees what you post. on your publisher, there will be a little lock button, that, when clicked on, will ask you the question “who do you want to tell?” This will give you the option to let only your family see the baby pictures you’re uploading – and only your friends to read the comment ab0ut their party last night.

Expect to see some accidentally public posts that were meant to be private as people get used to the new control they have over their announcements.

Changes to Facebook’s Name Display

One of our staff members recently got married. Both he and his wife decided to hyphenate their names. This raises a somewhat silly question: what happens to their Facebook profiles when their names change? Our colleague and his wife went ahead and just changed their names on their profiles.

The thing is, people aren’t used to new husbands changing their names. Even though his “Bachelor name” is still part of his last name, some old friends have asked to make sure they were friending the right person before approving.

Facebook has announced on their blog a new way around his problem – and the problem of many immigrants, wives who took their husbands’ names, and people who go by less intuitive nickames – if you go into your profile’s account options, you’ve been able for some time to add an alternate name, so that people looking for you can still find you in a search. What’s new is that Facebook is granting the option to display that alternate name alongside your real name in your profile.

So, while a search for “Reginald Dwight” would have always turned up “Elton John,” Elton’s name in his profile can now read “Elton John (Reginald Dwight).”

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