Facebook Subscribe: I Like You, But I Don't Have to Listen to You!

So, that's my facetious take on the new feature, Facebook Subscribe, launched yesterday in the run-up to the announcement frenzy of the company's f8 conference.

In a nutshell: Facebook Subscribe = Twitter Follow.

In a step closer to Twitter's very profile sharing, this new feature allows Facebooker's to share their status updates publicly, not just with their circle of friends. It also allows said friends, to select what appears in their newsfeed.

The over-sharing co-worker whom you feel you ought to Friend, but whose cat pictures litter your newsfeed? Good news, you can turn them off!

If you're already Friends, this new feature gives you the option to fine-tune which updates make it through to your newsfeed.

The most Twitter-esque function, is the ability for users to make their update stream public, effectively creating a Twitter-like stream (without the character limit) that you can follow without first being a friend. Think: celebrities, journalists, etc.

To enable your Facebook updates to go public, you'll need to opt-in on the Facebook Subscribe page. When posting updates, there'll be an option to post them to your public stream.

Interesting move, although as, thankfully, this isn't turned on by default and most users don't tinker with their settings, it's unlikely to make much of a dent in Twitter's position in the short-term.

What do you think? Will you be posting publicly from Facebook? Will you be Subscribing?