500 friends inclusive of acquaintances, co-workers, relatives, classmates from high school, classmates from university. It makes no sense being all semantic about it; Facebook "friends" are different from what a person would call a friend in reality, hence the new categorization, subscriptions and smart list options given.
That's exactly the kind of response I wanted to achieve.
> It makes no sense being all semantic about it
Does it really not? Look, you're commenting on an article which states that Facebook leaks our privacy. Don't you happen to notice that it does so because everyone is considered a friend? This ambiguity and lack of precision in defining the personal relationship to people you are in contact with, coupled with simply assuming by default that everyone's your trusted friend and can be given access to the most private details of your life is exactly what causes "privacy leaks". It's a social mechanism, and granted - if every user were to set up his privacy options in the perfect way - they wouldn't be happening. But we're only human, and on many levels, some of them subconscious, it's difficult for us to keep in mind that a friend may, in fact, not be a friend.
