The guys over at TechCrunch are reporting that Facebook will soon lift the limit on the number of friends a member can have - which now stands at 5,000.

If this turns out to be true, it will be huge.

Naturally, anyone who is active on Facebook has to wonder how this decision will impact the site. Personally, my initial fears hinge on the concern over Facebook becoming another Myspace (a site that has earned the reputation of being spam central). Realistically speaking, most people in the world don’t have over 5,000 friends– it’s probably not a stretch to say that most people don’t have over 500.

This was, pretty much, the reason Facebook gave for their decision to cap the number of friends a user could have. TechCrunch; however, insists that the true reason was related more to infrastructure and scalability issues which, apparently, have now been resolved.

If so, what does this mean for the casual user? Probably not much. Facebook states that fewer than 1,000 members have reached the 5,000 limit. I seriously doubt someone with 308 friends will suddenly get the urge to add 8,000 more. Worst case scenario, the casual user will get more friend requests from people they don’t know. A simple click of the “ignore” button and the problem is solved.

Now, there are people who, for whatever reason, have a lot of friends. I have about 1,200 on my list now. I’m nowhere near the current 5,000 cap but I did think about reaching it, and what it would mean for me. I shuddered to think that I might have to go on a friend purging spree. If the ban is lifted, that’s one less thing I have to worry about.

However, I’m still concerned about the effect such a decision would have on Facebook’s integrity as well as my ability to connect with close friends. I don’t want to have to sift through hundreds of useless messages and wall posts just to get to the ones that are actually meaningful and about something.

Perhaps, in the future, Facebook will develop some sort of priority system that will treat wall posts and messages from close friends and constant contacts more importantly than those from relative strangers.

In the meanwhile, I definitely plan on taking advantage of Facebook’s Friends List feature that allows me to group and organize my contacts. I already have lists for the people I’ve met while doing Internet Marketing… I plan on creating one for my close friends very soon. I’d recommend using this feature immediately since it will become exponentially harder and time consuming to sort though a friends list of 5,000 as opposed to 500.

And speaking of Internet Marketing, if Facebook does, indeed, lift the limit, this will be terrific news for people who want to build and increase their personal brand. It’ll become another tool in reaching out and building relationships with potential contacts, customers, and fans.