One Vote Against Facebook’s New Layout
By Ben Haber
March 19th, 2009
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.
Entry Filed under: Facebook,Social Media,Twitter
5 Comments Add your own
1. RaceTalk | March 19th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
New RaceTalk Post: One Vote Against Facebook’s New Layout http://tinyurl.com/cbjw2e
2. Sharon | March 20th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Ben, the vote on the new Facebook home page design is being done within a Facebook use’s application. In fact it isn’t an official Facebook vote and no doubt Facebook will ignore it (at Facebook’s peril).
Most – but not all – of the annoying clutter in the new Facebook home page design can be removed by changing user settings. However, the problem is that the changes must be made by the Facebook user who *generates* these notifications with their activities. The News Feed reader is unable to customise their own News Feed and other elements of their home page in any meaningful way. For example, the filters Facebook has provided don’t screen out application notifications or Wall-to-Wall conversations in which the reader is not a participant. Their only remedy is to hide ALL notifications about the friend who generates the clutter.
There have also been complaints about unwanted images appearing constantly in the ‘highlights’ bar on the right of the page and unable to be removed.
I’m not against layout changes per se – this one however fails on usability and design criteria.
3. Michelle | March 20th, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Sharon, you pretty much got it all covered in one post! Thank you
With regards to wall posts, it’s not just ones where you’re not a participant, it’s also ones in which you don’t have access to view one of the participating profiles! (One person is not your friend, and their profile is hidden to non-friends) Facebook has basically started to violate people’s privacy settings…
4. racetalkblog.com » &hellip | March 23rd, 2009 at 11:55 pm
[...] there has been tons of grumbling from users about the new design Facebook is using, corporations are certainly opening up to it – with one [...]
5. A Talk With Xconomy’&hellip | April 27th, 2009 at 9:35 am
[...] No, I think a lot of Facebook’s growing pains have been self-inflicted pains around policy changes and design changes. It seems like every time Facebook changes their terms [...]
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