This week Facebook changed their layout and it has caused quite the stir. I thought I would weigh-in with some of my thoughts.
- The first thing I thought when I saw the new layout was "This is eeriely similar to Twitter." To me, this wasn't a bad thing. For the most part, I go to Facebook to see people's status updates.
- I have to say that I like the way they handle repies to updates better than the way Twitter handles them. Facebook lists all the responses, i.e. comments, directly below each update.
- I like that they place new photos in the feed. However, I do not like that things like quiz results, super pokes, bracket challenge updates, etc. are added into the feed. They give you the option to turn off a friends updates. I wish they gave you a way to turn off updates from a specific application.
- I like the right column that tells you what your friends are getting into. I just wish that once I respond to something listed there that it would go away, or that there were an X that I could click to make certain things go away.
- I haven't messed much with the options on the left. I see that they have set it up so I can filter the feed to just show people in a certain group. That may be cool, but I've only set up one group, thus far. The new change may make me move towards creating more.
I was talking to a new friend of mine about the new layout. He made a comment that I thought was worth sharing here. We were talking about all the compaining people are doing about the new Facebook layout, and Bill said something like this...
I wish someone would remind all these people that they are not sixty-five years old.Though Facebook is spreading to older people, the primary user base for Facebook is under thrity. This is the generation that seeks out CHANGE. Just ask the President who preached change throughout his campaign while he tried to reach the younger demographic, which he did pretty successfully.
The layout changed. Accept it. Stop being like those guys on Grumpy Old Men, unless, of course, you are going to be like Gustufson.
What's your take?
posted by Shannon Smith @ 3/20/2009
2 Comments
Links to this post
2 Comments:
I definitely see it as a move to compete a little more with twitter, especially since they tried and failed to buy twitter recently.
I heard that they will also be opening up to 'serve' user info into other apps, to be even more twitter-esque.
Overall, the changes are fine by me, except for what you pointed out: they took away a lot of control over your feed. Now you either have to block a whole friend, or put up with whatever they clutter your feed with.
I noticed that they also stopped throttling user updates into the feed.
It used to be that if you were friends with someone who is constantly updating their status or writing on walls, it would only show you a small percentage of that person's activity unless you actively went and looked for it. But this seems to no longer be the case.
When all is said and done, I guess we can all stand to be reminded that facebook is free, so we really can't complain.
They're trying hard to figure out how to make some money on the deal, and who can blame them for that? Plus, it's still miles away from myspace, so I respect them for trying to find balance between profitability and usefulness....
I think people should add to the conversation (like Shannon has done here) to improve facebook instead of just saying, "I hate the new layout" (especially if they are under 30!). They should be more specific and lend their voice to the open-source nature of the site.
Great scene from Grumpy Old Men by the way!
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home