William Shatner is not a big fan of Facebook's new celebrity app called Mentions. Shatner, a celebrity, shared his dislike on his Twitter account (puns very much intended).
The 83-year-old actor best known for his Star Trek role as Captain Kirk, and is now a singer and current Priceline commercial face, tweeted he thought the app was "ill conceived." He said he couldn't see why they introduced it.
Based on reports, Mentions was developed to help celebrities better manage their presence on Facebook. Shatner reportedly said he would continue to use Pages and his regular Facebook features, but likely won't use Mentions much.
Only celebrities with public figure pages on Facebook can currently get the app, anyway, as Shatner pointed out. He gave the app a negative critique.
Shatner said he already had the Facebook, Pages and Mentions apps on his device, so he was in a good position to do the review. Also, according to the source, Shatner's review was quite thorough, complete with screenshots highlighting different features and making comparisons to Pages.
Shatner hinted to Facebook developers that Mentions should have access to photos, events and settings like Pages. Shatner thought it could just be an oversight on the part of Facebook.
Shatner doesn't like the suggestions Facebook serves from other celebrities and their statuses. He was served posts from former Star Trek co-star George Takei, who has said Shatner is a self-centered person. The two reportedly don't get along too well and Shatner made a point of that in his review.
"If this app is for celebrities, then why force them to follow another celebrity in order to set up this app?" Shatner said.
Shatner has a history of feuding with tech people. It was reported that he thought Engadget's social media person, John Colucci, was not important enough to be verified on Twitter.
It was also reported Shatner chose to follow Robert Downey Jr. instead of Takei, but hid posts from Downey Jr.
Whoopi Goldberg, Rachel Zoe and other celebrities have also been reported to be using the Mentions app already.
