Circle Hack Brings Google+ Group Creation to Facebook

Google+, the Internet giant's new social networking project, is still in "field test" mode, but Facebook is already learning from it. A group of Facebook engineers has apparently been inspired by the method that Google+ uses to create groups of friends, Circles.

In Google+, to add a friend to a Circle, which is just a group of friends, you simply drag the friend into a Circle. That's a lot more user-friendly than Facebook's method, which involves going into your Friends, clicking on “Edit Friends,” then on “Create a List” and adding friends manually.

Well, what is it they say? "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Thus, we have Circle Hack, created by a bunch of Facebook engineers, Vladimir Kolesnikov, Peng Fan, Zahan Malkani, and Brian Rosenthal.

It's really a Facebook application, so to use it, login to your Facebook account (if you're not already logged in you will be prompted) and "Allow" the site access just as you might do for any other Facebook application. Then you drag your friends into the circles below.

Once you have a Circle organized the way you want it, you simply click on the "Create List" link that appears in the center of your new circle to name it. That's it; you're done and the next time you open Facebook, you'll see the newly created list as an option in the "Friends" section and in your privacy settings, just as if you created the list the "normal" way.

There are some caveats. Circle Hack is great for adding and creating a Facebook list, but it can't be used to delete a list or remove a friend from a list by dragging them out of it. Still, it's a great first step, assuming Facebook wants to pursue it ... or more likely, something else that's similar, to avoid ticking off Google ... as a permanent change.