Facebook Search. Updated.

Facebook Search has just been updated in a subtle but significant way.

Earlier, to visit a person's profile, an application or a page all one had to do was type the first few letters in the search box, use the arrow keys to select the profile that came up automatically and click return.

Now - this has changed and it instead leads to a search page for that particular keyword instead.

As you can probably see, this small change can potentially have a significant impact on usage inside Facebook.

For instance, if I type a name that's popular among my friends, say Jack, then the search results would show me their profiles (along with profiles of other Jacks) together with status updates/wall posts that include the word Jack.

Similarly, if you searched for a product you are already a fan of, then potentially, in the search results, you'd get the fan page you were looking for, but perhaps also another group that critiques that product or company (on Facebook these usually end up with names like 'We hate Acme'). All this, leading to a more democratic social network.

Maybe this change has come about as a result of Facebook's acquisition of Friendfeed and its people?

This small change would be just one of many others if there wasn't a small rider to the way Facebook search now behaves.

There is no change in the way you browse profiles if you type the first few letters, let the results come up under the search box and then use your mouse to click on the profile. In that case you're led to the profile directly. I suppose Facebook has retained this functionality for the mouse for more 'novice' users who do not mind moving hands from keyboard to mouse for a result.

So what Facebook have (very cleverly) done, is that they've changed the UI for more experienced users while retaining it for more novice users. A very smart move and a strategic one at that.

'Click' on BBC - Is it even a Technology program?

Tech Geek or Muppet?

Oh there are no two ways about it, I hate 'Click', even its name sucks! It used to be 'Click Online' and then they probably figured 'oh wait, we can also click on the PC can't we?', so they renamed it 'Click'. Its funny because in tech terms, the word click is usually used as a verb and not so much as a noun...so the name of this program sounds like there's something waiting to happen - and I guess that is the story of the show as well.

So when Click Online started off many years ago, its lead presenter was Stephen Cole, who before his lead role in 'CO', used to present news bulletins on BBC world. I think it was probably late 90s or early 2000s, the time of the tech boom and much excitement around the world about dot coms and the possibilities of the internet. So there we had Cole-man, with his white hair and extremely boring tech talk, telling us what it all meant for us. And this is the BBC's flagship technology program - pathetic!

Tech talk on Click is so basic, worn out, bored and even at times quite dated, that it completely bores the hell out of (nay, annoys the hell out of) a techie like me.

To make a pathetic show even worse, Stephen was replaced with Spencer Kelly, who in the BBC's own words, "studied computer science at Cambridge for three years, before realising that he had not understood any of it".

Right. It definitely shows because neither Spencer, nor any of his wannabe flashy geek co-presenters, know anything about technology. I don't understand it. The BBC does not dumb down Panorama or Horizon for amateur audiences - why then must it dumb down Click with presenters who are clearly not technologists but just a bunch of amateur star wars memorablia collectors?

According to the BBC: Kate Russell, a co-presenter and infinitely more annoying than anyone else on the show, "likes to tinker with her PC, is still hooked on video games and is currently teaching herself computer animation. Yes, that's right. She really is a geek."

Right. And here is proof that playing video games does not qualify someone to talk nonsense on a TV show. In today's program, she was reviewing a website, 'It works on Java, so you will need that function activated to get it working'.

No shit Kate. Where can I download this Java 'function' from? From java.com did you say?

The whole program's like a bunch of roadside mechanics talking about fuel cell engined cars. Its just impossible to understand. If the show was indeed meant for grandparents, why hide it under the tag line 'BBC's flagship technology program' - just admit that its not and never will be! And for heaven's sake, stop broadcasting this on BBC World.