Browser extensions, by their very nature, modify the various ways in which websites are interacted with, presented, and enjoyed. As long as there are websites out there, there will be people crafting ways to modify them. Everyone has a preferred way of browsing. F.B. Purity is one such extension designed to eliminate the clutter from Facebook. Unfortunately, the halcyon days of an uncluttered Facebook might be coming to an end since Facebook’s legal team has now banned the developer.
Officially titled Fluff Busting Purity, the browser extension includes a number of features that Facebook’s probably not too keen on. It can force the timeline to sort by Most Recent at all times, lets folks go directly to news articles rather than through the organization’s application page, and nearly all the links to the left and right of the timeline can be hidden. Obviously, this is not what Facebook wants, or they’d have similar options.
This isn’t the first time the developer’s run into trouble with the social media company, and the earlier legal tussle resulted in the current naming scheme. Even so, Facebook is allegedly looking to renege on this deal and wants F.B. Purity to stop using the combination of “F” and “B” in its name and domain.
Should the ban stick, it’d make it rather difficult for the developer to continue, well, developing the extension. This is almost certainly the intention of Facebook, which is itself confusing. Intentionally and obviously killing the extension will only generate bad press for the company and draw attention to the product.
Kind of like this article.
(F.B. Purity via Hacker News, image via Franco Bouly)
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Published: Dec 19, 2012 01:50 pm