The project was aimed at making it easier to sort Facebook friendships into separate clusters, such as college chums, drinking buddies, co-workers, neighbors and family. That, in turn, is intended to make people more comfortable about posting observations and pictures for which they only want a limited audience.
Facebook already offers a way to do this through a "lists" feature. But only about 5 percent of Facebook's more than 500 million worldwide users take the time to use this tool to carve up their friendships.
Another new feature allows users to copy and download all of their Facebook data at once to a zip file.
Users will alos have more control and security over who sees their Facebook page and how it's used. In the past Facebook has come under fire for not providing better security for its users.
/*Facebook*/ founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the changes during a press conference on Wednesday, marking his first public appearance since the recent debut of "The Social Network," a movie that follows the website's origins and evolutions.
Zuckerberg dodged reporters' questions about the film, which has drawn large audiences so far, topping last weekend's /*box office*/ charts.
He has said previously that the movie is a complete exaggeration of actual events, and has gone as far as calling the film, "fiction."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
