Paul Adams, a senior user experience researcher at Google (NSDQ: GOOG), is leaving the company to join Facebook starting next year, according to Inside Facebook and one ofhis tweets. He may be best known for his deep analysis of Facebook and its privacy issues in a lengthy presentation five months ago. In particular, “The Real Life Social Network” pointed out how the site doesn’t enable users to manage the various kinds of relationships within their greater network of friends.
The presentation highlights the limitations of the current social networking software in mapping the real life relationships. The key assumption here is that the social networking software should accurately map the real life relationships. The presentation suggests to use the work of anthropologist Robin Dunbar as a guideline in designing the social networking software.
