Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Hughes, hosted an online chat forum Thursday for college newspaper editors, allowing universities to ask questions about the networking site and voice their schools' concerns with its new changes.
Amidst the most recent buzz about the popular site originally designed to foster communication among college and later high school students is the prospect of Facebook opening its virtual doors to anyone with a valid e-mail address.
""We're doing this because one of the top suggestions we get from our users is ‘Make it so that my other friends can get on!'"" said Hughes, Facebook's spokesperson.
Now, users must have a valid .edu e-mail address to join the site; when it opens to regional users, college Facebook members can choose to join a regional network or simply remain within their college network.
Also, Hughes and CEO Zuckerberg stressed that members can edit their privacy controls so even members of their own networks cannot see their profiles.
Several universities posed questions regarding the additions of News Feed and Mini-Feed on Facebook, features added last week that show recent actions taken on Facebook by users' friends, including when their relationship statuses, interests, political views and favorite activities change.
""I really don't care what people do every second of their day, and I really hope they don't care what I do every second of my day,"" UW-Madison junior Marissa Floyd said when the feed came out.
After nearly a quarter of a million people joined an official group petitioning against the feeds, Zuckerberg posted a personal apology on the Facebook home page, including new feed privacy controls.
""Some people have said they think the feeds are too much, but I think they just surface information that was already there in an easier way,"" Zuckerberg said. ""Over the past week, we've received a lot of feedback from people that they learned things about their friends that they would have otherwise missed.""
As the seventh most-trafficked website, with more than 9.5 million users, Facebook has fielded buy-out offers from several large media corporations, including Viacom.
""Is Rupert Murdoch gunning for you?"" one reporter asked of the News Corporation/FOX Entertainment Group tycoon.
""He wishes,"" Zuckerberg said, with an ""emoticon"" smile.
