One Vote Against Facebook’s New Layout
By Ben Haber
It has been reported that Mark Zukerberg’s love for Twitter is what pushed him to change Facebook’s layout. As someone who uses both Facebook and Twitter – I’m not a fan. At all.
Twitter and Facebook have two different uses. Facebook was first developed to connect people in college. While it was gradually opened up to high school students and the entire world, it has always been a network where your ‘Facebook friends’ aren’t necessarily the people you talk to every day. We keep in touch with them and check out their vacation pictures, but I really don’t want to hear what they’re doing throughout the day.
On the other hand, Twitter has been a tool where I can follow what people are doing, and see what they find interesting and want to share. The people I’m following on Twitter are completely different from the people I’m friends with on Facebook. It’s like two separate worlds.
I usually use Twitter throughout the day, although hours can go by before I check and see what people have been posting. I used to check Facebook 5-6 times a week – not anymore. Now when I go on the site it’s filled with information that I don’t want to see, and it’s too difficult to navigate through everything.
So why did Facebook have to change their layout? As of last month, Twitter was receiving 54 million monthly visitors, which impressive. However, Facebook was receiving 1.2 billion visitors a month! While Twitter is becoming mainstream, it’s not for everybody. Facebook has a wider appeal, but they are now changing their model to appear more like a micro-social network that has less members.
One thing that Facebook has done correctly in the past is listen to its users, so hopefully it will hear the outcries about the most recent changes. One Facebook application is currently holding a vote on what people thing of the new design.
What do you think of the new layout?
Update (3.20.09)
TechCrunch reports that 94% of users don’t like the new Facebook design.
5 comments March 19th, 2009
