14 DAY TRIAL // If there were any remaining doubts that Facebook learned its lessons from Google+, after the new 'Circles-like' Lists feature, Facebook is now debuting an asymmetrical follow model, turning on its head the core social feature of the site, friending.
You can now "Subscribe" to any Facebook user, who enables the feature, so you can follow their public activity without actually becoming friends with them.
The thing that characterized Facebook's social graph the most was the fact that both users had to be friends before any connection was established between them.
"Until now, it hasn't been easy to choose exactly what you see in your News Feed," Facebook's Zach Rait wrote.
"Maybe you don't want to see every time your brother plays a game on Facebook, for example. Or maybe you'd like to see more stories from your best friends, and fewer from your coworkers," he said.
"You also couldn't hear directly from people you're interested in but don't know personally—like journalists, artists and political figures," he added.
"With the Subscribe button, we're making it easier to do both. In the next few days, you'll start seeing this button on friends' and others' profiles," he announced.
Subscribe enables you to control the amount of updates from friends
There are two ways you can use the Subscribe button. If you're already friends with someone, you can use it to customize the amount of updates you receive from that user.
Normally, Facebook adjusts the amount of updates in the News Feed from any of your friends algorithmically, more stuff from the people you connect with the most.
Now, you have a say in that, you can choose between "All updates" - every post, "Most updates" - what Facebook algorithmically determines you should see, and "Important updates only" - only the big stuff like a new job.
Subscribe to people you're not friends with, like on Twitter or Google+
However, the second way of using the Subscribe button is much more interesting since you can also subscribe to people you are not friends with on Facebook.
This enables you to follow (almost) anyone on Facebook, just like on Twitter and Google+. It's easy to see where this could come in handy, perhaps you like what a person posts or you want to know the latest updates from an influential user.
Until now, these users had to set up and use Facebook pages, separate from their regular Facebook profiles. Many reached the 5,000 friends limit and only then switched to pages and asking people to start following them there.
There's no need for that anymore, if you believe that there are people interested in what you're saying, beyond the people you know, you can enable the Subscribe feature for your profile and don't worry about pages. What's more, you can also merge your profile with your Facebook page now.
The Subscribe button is optional, it's only displayed if you enable it
There is one caveat, though it's probably the right choice, the Subscribe button is optional, it will not show up on your profile unless you enable it. This way, if you don't want people you don't know keeping track of you, even if it's only your public posts, you don't have to worry about Subscribe.
