Facebook To Drop 'Is' From Status Updates
"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." Bill Clinton can rest easy knowing that he will soon have more verb options when updating his status on Facebook. Facebook announced to developers last night that it will soon be dropping the word "is" from status message updates.
The developer platform has already been updated so that external applications that update user status can avoid prepending the word "is." For now, status updates on Facebook still include the "is," but Facebook platform engineers promise that the change will be pushed to Facebook at large soon and make the lack of verb a default behavior rather than something you have to specify. "In a few, we will delete that parameter and change the default behavior to be that you must include your own verb," they wrote.
Though the update is aimed specifically at developers, and it is still rather hazy whether this change will only apply to external applications that update status via the API or to Facebook as a whole, it seems likely that the latter is true.
Status is a fairly important part of any social application, and I have noticed more and more of my friends utilizing Facebook's status feature on a regular basis recently (though, that could be because I have started using it more often in the past few weeks and thus have been paying more attention to it). It is, however, clear that a large number of people were annoyed by the lack of verb choice when updating status.
A group to petition Facebook to drop the "is" gained over 163,000 members -- much more than the majority of Facebook groups -- and today is proclaiming victory based on the platform update. It was one of many groups crusading against the verb. Though it would be silly to say that 163,000 members speak for the rest of Facebook's 50 million or so members, it is hard to believe anyone would object to this change. I often see my friends already ignoring the is in status updates and ending up with clunky, incorrect sentences like, "Jim is just left the symposium early." I can't count how many times I've made the mistake of including the "is" when typing my status out and ending up with "Josh is is" -- it's just natural to want to use your own verbs. My guess is that Facebook initially included the "is" to help people understand what status was and how it was intended to be used, but now that people know what it is, dropping the verb is a great idea.
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It's about time! At least now my automatic Tweets to Facebook Status postings won't sound so stupid :)
this is news? seriously, you guys need to get a life.
This will make Twitter updates to Facebook much better, hopefully the twitter application can drop the "is twittering" now.
Also, there will be no more "X is thinking that..." there is nothing more annoying!
And what happened to commenter reputation around here? I was going to vote "pathetic" down :D
This is truly a great day. I suggest making Thursday a national holiday. BTW, not only did the largest Facebook group advocating deletion of "is" have over 163,000 members, but I formed a smaller (or should I say more elite) group, called the Ex-Is-Tentialists, for the same purpose. I also joined the group "Ja til å fjerne 'is' fra statusfeltet i Facebook," a group of nearly 27,000 Finnish Facebook users protesting the same thing!
congrats, I was wondering if anyone was going to reference Clinton's "the meaning of the word "is" is".
It was what it was
Yes, yes, yes... it makes so much sense.
"this is news? seriously, you guys need to get a life."
Oh man, Im so glad to see there are other people who dont care about every twitch facebook makes.
This is f**king nuts. I don't expect this kind of sh*t in this blog. I hate this TechMeme pile-on crap consuming all of you guys. If you don't have news, just don't post.
Tim J, Jason, and Pathetic,
If this is not the information you are looking for, why did you read it? The headline was clear.
"I hate this TechMeme pile-on crap consuming all of you guys. If you don't have news, just don't post."
I was not aware that anyone forced you to load the page or read the content. Create your own web space and censor it all you want, but don't tell others what they can and cannot discuss online.
@Tim J: I only saw this story on Techmeme after I hit publish. To be honest, Techmeme doesn't drive that much traffic (links perhaps, but that's hard to measure) and we never write stories with the express purpose of "getting on Techmeme."
We write what we think is newsworthy and interesting, if you don't agree, no one is making you read it. But thanks for so politely letting us know how you feel.
We are merely expressing our concern about the lack of quality blog topics. Overall RWW does an excellent job with posting interesting posts, but if RWW wants to keep their piece of realestate on my RSS homepage then I hope they will consider all the feedback from readers.
I have to agree that this post doesn't meet the typical high standards of RWW. I expect in-depth analysis of new products here, not Valleywag stuff. We have Valleywag for that, don't we?
"You don't have to read it if you don't like it" - but there is such a thing called brand perception, isn't there? RWW is sort of the NY Times of web 2.0 blogs. Sober, analytical take. This falls short, and I call you guys on it.
I agree--if you don't like it, don't read it. Or, even better, if you're going to post feedback, post feedback that can actually be respected. I mean, do you expect them to listen to people who BITCH, or people who just explain that it's not what they want?
Anyways, I think it's interesting. I find the "is" thing annoying. And really, it's kind of nice to have an article about more trivial stuff every once in awhile, yes?
Let me just say that we appreciate (and listen to!) all feedback, positive or negative.
Anyway I thought the Bill Clinton comparison was great :-)
My is is history ... I was able to change mine while FB were not looking ... Viva!!!
Haha. A post about how facebook is removing 'is'. You should call Channel5 News and let them know as well or something, jesus..
That's all nice and good, but the "is" is still in my Facebook-status. What's up with that?
I actually thought it was quite funny that an article was written about it, but I'm glad. Also, I know MySpace is generally dead, but has anyone noticed that they respond quicker to things people say about Facebook. For instance, a short while after they started giving people the chance to use status updates, they removed the "is," just like Facebook users wanted Facebook to do. I guess they're trying to pull people back into the MySpace realm (although it isn't working for me).
I like the "is". It's makes people be more creative.
I am am amuzed to see people with no life posting to such dribble. Someone always takes takes offense. If they have have time to read this stuff AND post to it, then I guess they really had nothign to do anyway bt rant. K I need need to go hnt hunt or something. BTW Props to us rebelers in the group! *pats himself on back*
Note: not all the people in the world has english as native language...
I like the is. Its not that hard to work with. I think its classic.
"Pam is sad that the is will be gone."
How can this possibly, in any weird, twisted way, be news?
I thought R/WW was a serious newssite, not Facebook's puppet. It makes me considering removing your feed from my feedreader... :-(
As of yesterday (20th November) I have been getting a double "is" in my Facebook Sidebar for Firefox (on Windows XP). Thus, although I only type into my status the words (for example) "feeling cold", my status as displayed in this sidebar is "Peter Kirk is is feeling cold". Well, in fact I don't see my own status, but since every one of my 38 friends with a non-null status has "is is" displayed in their status, I presume that is what is happening. Presumably someone has over-compensated for the expected deletion of "is" by adding in an extra "is"! But what we really want is for both "is"'s to be deleted.
Dear God. This is what Shakespeare must have meant when he wrote 'Much Ado About Nothing.' How tech has inspired us to waffle about trivia! ;-) Maybe Darth Vader could be co-opted to head an intergalactic 'is status' forum? That might settle it.
Um...how did the comments digress from "Hurray, no more 'is'!" to "hey, this article is pointless!" No offense, but if you want to comment, you should comment about the news article, not about the merit/pointlessness of it.
Anyways. I'm glad Facebook is getting rid of that annoying "is"; I've seen plenty of people ignore it anyway...making rather amusing status messages.
a short while after they started giving people the chance to use status updates, they removed the "is," just like Facebook users wanted Facebook to do