FBHive

It wasn’t long after we published our post that noted and speculated on Facebook’s recent Publisher redesign that our prediction was confirmed. Facebook just announced on their blog that they’re launching a beta version of an “improved Publisher” today.

The new Publisher is described as being more streamlined and, most notably, includes a “Publisher Privacy Control”, the official name for the “Everyone button” feature that both TechCrunch and All Facebook described a week ago.

The Publisher Privacy Control is a button with a padlock on it that sits next to the “Share” button. When clicked, a drop-down menu appears allowing you to decide who you want to make the content visible to: Everyone, Friends and Networks, Friends of Friends, Friends or Custom (choose any friend or Friend List to include or exclude). This setting can obviously be different for each post you make, allowing you to be highly selective about who sees what.

Additionally, Facebook has mentioned that when you add a new friend, you’ll begin to start seeing posts they have set to “Everyone” appear in your News Feed before they have confirmed you as a friend.

People who had previously set their status updates and profile privacy settings to be visible to “Everyone” are apparently included in this beta launch, with Facebook hoping to expand it to more accounts soon. It has not been activated for any accounts at FBHive yet so we’re unable to give you a hands-on report, but from the screenshot released by Facebook, the Publisher Privacy Control seems to be fairly straight forward and simple to use.

What do you think of the Publisher Privacy Control feature? Has it been activated on your account yet? Let us know in the comments.