Facebook more public

Soon anyone will be able to search for a Facebook user, whether or not he or she is a registered user. The social site will be preparing users for the change for the next 30 days, telling them they can set their privacy settings so their profiles can't be searched for from the public Web, Reuters reports. Then, in a month, Facebook will have a search box on its home page and search engines' Web crawlers will be allowed to crawl Facebook's population of 39 million users (up 62.5% from 24 million in late May, Reuters says. What search engine users will be able to turn up is a Facebook user's basic profile, the BBC reports: "the thumbnail picture of a Facebook member from their profile page as well as links allowing people to interact with them. But, in order to add someone as a friend or send them a message, the person will have to be registered with Facebook."