All friends are equal but some friends are more equal than others

In my 2008 predictions post last week, I predicted (somewhat hopefully) that social networks like Facebook would start to understand that not all friends are created equal. Watch for increased ability, I wrote, to tag friends based on relationships and set privacy settings accordingly. This would mean that a Facebook user could chose to share certain photos with current friends, but not the grade four stalker from 20 years ago.

Well, the Inside Facebook blog reports today that Facebook will enable that functionality in the first quarter.

Also coming in the next three months: Facebook in other languages and the toppling of the rule that prevents groups larger than 10,000 members from being able to send messages out to its members.

Thanks to Rob Cottingham of Social Signal for this image.