If you like the idea of dividing up your friends into discrete groups like Google+ does but don’t have the energy for that much dragging and dropping — or for Google+, generally — Facebook’s new Smart Lists could be a tender mercy.
The feature — which started rolling out recently to select users, and will presumably see broader deployment soon — automatically groups your friends into three categories: coworkers, classmates and people who live within 80km of you. It seems as though you’ll be able customise statuses and messages to members of a particular list, so you won’t end up bugging your Melbourne friends with your impassioned hate of Sydney’s public transport system.
So it’s narrower than your entire friend list, and broader than Facebook Groups. Does that mean Smart Lists hits a social sweet spot? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just another unnecessary distraction from your FarmVille harvesting. [TechCrunch, Screengrab via @NickStarr]