Facebook Ditches Regional Networks

Facebook said this week that it is dropping its regional networks because they have become too large to be of any use.

"When we added regional networks to the site back in 2005, they provided a useful way for people to find and connect with the people around them," Facebook's Paul McDonald wrote in a blog post. "We've grown substantially since then, and today these networks too often represent large geographical areas--sometimes entire countries--that no longer accurately reflect people's real-world connections."

Facebook has networks for cities, regions, and countries, and approximately 50 percent of members have joined a network, McDonald wrote. A person's location will still be listed on their profile under "current city" or "current region".

Overall, however, the site has started removing these networks, and when that process is finished, they will no longer appear in your privacy settings. At that point, you will have the option of allowing profile access to friends, friends of friends, or everyone on the site.

Facebook has already removed the regional setting in the news feed. "We found that few people were using the regional network filters, choosing filters for their schools, workplaces and friend lists instead to surface interesting and relevant information," McDonald wrote.