Facebook public profile

So today I accidentally discovered my Facebook "public profile" page while signed out of the service... it's pretty incredible how much information is exposed to a general web search by default, even to those without an FB account:

* profile photo
* sample set of your friends
* sample list of pages you're a fan of: products, music, celebs & places


If you're like me and primarily use Facebook for your personal virtual life rather than a professional or similarly-edited profile, or you simply feel this is too much of a snapshot of your life & interests for general public consumption, or for many other reasons - you may want to adjust some of these privacy settings. To do so:

* hover over "Settings" in the FB header - click "Privacy"
* click "Search" on the privacy settings page
* on this page you can adjust which items are shown in any search, who is able to find you on FB, as well as select to enable or disable your public profile altogether.

Personally, I've become comfortable with having multiple searchable profiles out in the virtual world, but there was a time it freaked me out a little. I still like to have a bit of control over my online "personal brand" as you probably do, and have learned how to manage my LinkedIn and similar profiles for this purpose - and now Facebook as well.