Well said. Facebook was great at just throwing a lot of information at you in the Live Feed. If people have to go searching for it then it just won't get found.
Joe McDermott
· 8 months ago
Very much agree with everything said here!
Kevin Cimring
· 8 months ago
I agree with you; couldn't have said it better.
pauljacobson
· 8 months ago
I like the new design myself although it is a pain in the butt having to manually refresh the home page all the time. The disappearance of a live feed seems to be a common complaint, what is the chance we'll see some of this functionality return to the site in the near future?
Were these all intentional design choices the Facebook developers are intent on retaining or is this more a case that they are open to making further changes and upgrades if users want them?
Jennifer Fong
· 8 months ago
I agree with you. I, too, wanted to give the new Facebook some time before forming an opinion. But now I'm noticing that if someone sends the same thing to multiple people, it shows up that many times in my stream. I've always used Facebook as the most personal of my social media tools. I'm worried that Facebook is going to lose that element, and that will make it a lot less fun. How many people will want to get involved, if it's losing more of the personal feel? I don't have a problem with the general layout. I just wish that the more personal info, like you mention above, was still visible in my newsfeed.
Ann Smiley
· 8 months ago
Very well put. And what has replaced the news feed is a right-column full of Facebook groups that my friends have joined, some of which are adult in nature. This morning when I logged on I had three "ads" for sex-oriented Facebook groups on my FB home page. There's no way to dismiss these ads, so I'm in the position of needing to delete all my friends who join these groups, or grit my teeth and endure them. One of the reasons I left MySpace was because of the overtly sexual content. Now I get to see that seven of my friends are fans of "I love sex." No, eight, because clearly they've seen the group on their pages and joined up. It's absolutely idiotic. These are not paid advertisements, why has Facebook given them so much prominence, and not given users the ability to dismiss them? I'm very disgruntled.
Rizzo Tees
· 8 months ago
"Before, if I created an application for Facebook, I could count on it spreading virally, because users would see that their friends are using the app and some of them would click on it and try it themselves."
I believe this also holds true for becoming a "fan" of a fan page - I have been picking up fewer fans because the viral aspect of fanhood is now gone. Someone becomes a fan of me, and it doesn't appear but in the person's profile. FTL
Kat
· 8 months ago
couldn't agree more, the new facebook seems like a cluttered version of twitter. i've hardly used my facebook account since.
Rizzo Tees
· 8 months ago
New Facebook = New Coke.
Pass it on
juan luis sarchione
· 8 months ago
facebook should focus on facebook, not on twitter. Because they are two different platforms. Perhaps they have doubts about what they want, and the crisis is affecting them too.
Antonia
· 8 months ago
Facebook has been around for about 5 years, so I guess this would be the time for an internet midlife crisis.
clk
· 8 months ago
completely agree - facebook lost its main function to me - to see the leisure-side of my friends with status updates, friendships and app's - usage... now its just a bit naked to me and far less attractive to leave it open all the time.
Bart Vickers
· 8 months ago
Do the good folks at FB not do any user-centered design? I liked FB over Twitter precisely because it provided more depth into my social graph. This redesign is, frankly, anti-user. It's like the marketing people and the technical people got together, but didn't bother to invite any designers, UX, or IA people. This is going to cause problems for FB, precisely at a time when they need to be most competitive. Hopefully the "next" redesign is a day or two away.
mike ashworth
· 8 months ago
Advertisers on facebook must be gutted. I see zero adverts on the main feed page however they are there still when i look at my profile page, but that's not where I'm going to be "hanging out".....
The feed page looks like it has been "cobbled together" by someone who has never attended a "how to build design and build a usable website" course.
If they want it to be like twitter, the friend limit will be an issue, then again we could all do what scoble does and head on over to Friendfeed. Personally for those that want to connect around shared interests, I'm off to visit Ning :-)
Xp Coats
· 8 months ago
Likewise finding the new home page to be a major FAIL. I didn't want it to look like Twitter. One friend called me "obnoxious" because each thank you I sent to those who joined a Cause I invited them to showed up as a separate update and blocked me. That's not cool.
iAlja
· 8 months ago
The Highlights sections now includes info about what groups my friends are joining, profiles they are fans of, and apps they are using. I quite like the new layout and I have the feeling that I actually get more info about my friends now.
JuergenB
· 8 months ago
Excellent post, I fell like I'm hearing less from my friends now, and that I'm less responsive to them, I suspect because of the reasons listed: There is no good place left with an aggregate view of what they are up to...
Zac Brousseau
· 8 months ago
While I appreciate how the new FB design makes it an easier platform for live conversations--especially last week during the marathon Syracuse/UConn game when I was communicating w/ more than a half dozen people at once, all watching the game--I agree that some of what I liked about FB to begin with, unfortunately, has been sacrificed.
Greg Strong
· 8 months ago
I could have wrote that. I was feeling that. My guess is that tens of millions of others could have as well.
Jose Gonzalez
· 8 months ago
even more annoying is apps that post to your status message now. you will see an entry for each friend they sent it to. my feed is almost worthless at this point =/
Sevgi Nalbantoglu
· 8 months ago
I can't agree more... Especially with the comments on Twitter. Separate services, for separate things. You don't see Twitter introducing extensive profile pages, do you?
Cheryl
· 8 months ago
Thank God I'm not the only one - I agree with everything you articulated!
kikolani
· 8 months ago
I agree. I miss getting to see the other updates besides status. Especially since a lot of people have Twitter updating their FB status, the live feed is nothing but Twitter updates in most cases. Simple profile updates, photo additions, link shares, fan and group adds... all gone. Plus, I had my previous news feed set to show certain people and certain items more than others. That too seems to be missing. :(
unhappy
· 8 months ago
this article nails it! i couldn't have said it better myself. i used to check facebook 20 times a day; now, 4-5 at most.
Adrian Novak
· 8 months ago
Facebook is constantly improving their algorithm as new data becomes available. This means your experience will change with time. What is true today may not be true tomorrow.
geiro
· 8 months ago
...and try to find your social ads and pages( if y are doin some advertising in facebook)-yes I know they are still there-but no longer as an icon on your homepage where it was very easy to find..now you have to go to the bottom of your page -click on advertising-and choose your own campaign...took me some time to find out
Patrick
· 8 months ago
I agree. It seems like Facebook shot themselves in the foot by trying to be more like Twitter by having facebook be mostly about status updates. I don't want to have to hunt down my events either.
Adrian Novak
· 8 months ago
Facebook is constantly improving their algorithm as new data becomes available. This means your experience will change with time. What is true today may not be true tomorrow.
edythemighty
· 8 months ago
The right sidebar includes all the media your friends are currently engaged in, and if you have so few friends on facebook (82 you say) it shouldn't be so hard to make a couple of friend's lists
Dan Lester
· 8 months ago
I'd also like to believe that Facebook are just executing a well-thought out strategy that we don't fully understand yet. Beacon was an example of one move that wasn't quite so well-thought out. More care and attention to detail surrounded the 2008 redesign, however.
One indication that this is a knee-jerk reaction to Twitter's rise is that the layout (CSS/HTML) hasn't even been tested properly. I'm hardly in the dark ages using the most recent FireFox 2 (rather than upgrading to 3 for now), but there are a number of things that just don't work or are completely out of alignment. That's not the Facebook we used to love...
They shouldn't be scared of Twitter - that's for people to passively follow celebrities and a few people they don't really like right now. Facebook is for seeing what your real friends are really up to, not just the few outliers who can be bothered to actively update their status.
Sevgi Nalbantoglu
· 8 months ago
I can't agree more... Especially with the comments on Twitter. Separate services, for separate things. You don't see Twitter introducing extensive profile pages, do you?
idont
· 8 months ago
But what if Facebook did it on purpose to not impact the performances? As much information as the previous information may have been difficult to manage from the technical point of view. Do not remember they want to reach "real time".
If we get in the live feed what we have in the "new profil" (I love how they aggregate), it will rock...
Has some insider some information?
Tom
· 8 months ago
Prior to this, app stories appearing on the home page were non-exsistant.
Now apps can publish stories that appear soon thereafter on all the users' friends' home pages. However, they must be short stories which generally require a confirmation from the user before being published.
This new situation is better for apps that implement short stories as now they can appear on the home page whereas before most apps has no chance to appear on the home page.
jake
· 8 months ago
Actually, apps have more exposure now in the newsfeed than they did before. One line stories posted via the API will no longer show up in the newsfeed (they rarely did before anyway), but stories posted via the feed form (the little dialog that lets users preview what they're posting to their wall) will ALWAYS show up in their friends newsfeed. For the first time, users who haven't added an app can see the apps activity in their feed. Much better for app developers.
Amy Strecker
· 8 months ago
As I just said in my Facebook status update, "Amy Kathryn Strecker thinks FB newsfeed used to be a buffet line where you could look for what you wanted to eat, but now it's like dumpster diving for dinner."
Peter
· 8 months ago
totally agree... was actually one of the few of my friends who like the last redesign. Especially the cleaning up of the profile pages. The News Feed was excellent, found great events and groups like that... now what?
Very disappointing, very...
rachel
· 8 months ago
I agree completely . . . I liked the old feed--it was a great way to see who added new pictures, jump in on conversations with friends, etc. Facebook status updates are probably the thing I cared about least--I love twitter and I don't need facebook to be a watered-down version of the aforementioned. On Twitter, I can choose to follow those who post content that I value, whereas facebook is just a free-for-all . . . meaningful content has been edged out, and meanwhile I really don't care that facebook friend #157 is "putting on a pot of coffee & getting ready to watch lifetime movies all day."
Roy Abraham
· 8 months ago
I agree. If Facebook wants to be the new Twitter, something is coming along and become the new Facebook.
Brent Miller
· 8 months ago
I agree completely. I've spent time trying to get it but I don't want to click on all the buttons on the left. I loved the more or less of this person feature so I could manage my information all on one screen.
AlexinHouston
· 8 months ago
Well written. At first I thought that it looked handsome and streamlined, then I started to notice the same things. How unfortunate.
Daniel
· 8 months ago
My wife really misses being able to see only people's status updates. She doesn't want to see every time her friend wrote on someone's wall.
Cherie Yoder
· 8 months ago
AMEN!!!!!!! I hate how the entire comment is posted on the main page. It makes me think twice before posting something personal on what SHOULD be a friend's personal Wall! Good grief. It looks so cluttered to me!
Art Stanton
· 8 months ago
There are apps that appear in the feed. One that spread just the other day is "What country should you live in?" If the app updates your status (this one asks if you want to, and I, along with a few of my friends said yes), then it can still spread virally.
More apps will have to include that in their development in order to increase the viral-ability (new word, 2 points for me!) of their app.
David Henderson
· 8 months ago
test
Matthew Loop
· 8 months ago
Facebook's imitation of Twitter could signal their eventual fall from grace. I don't care for the new design either and I think this is just another step at alienating the people that made them as popular as they are.
@MatthewLoop
Daniel
· 8 months ago
My wife misses being able to see only her friend's status updates. She doesn't want to see everything that they wrote on their friend's walls.
Marc Mendoza
· 8 months ago
You can get status updates only by clicking on 'friends' up on the top of the page. There is also a link to subscribe to a RSS feed of your friends status updates.
Jason Martin
· 8 months ago
I totally agree with you, Stan, and it makes me wonder if Facebook has lost sight of its users totally. Did they ask us what we wanted? A little market research could have been a worthwhile step.
Toby Beresford
· 8 months ago
Agreed, feels like it's a case of following the shiny new thing, twitter, and not sticking to the knitting, feed.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
i completely agree. i have twitter, i liked facebooks old way of having my home page be a hub of what was happening in my friends lives. also am not so keen on this new privacy feature...or shall i say lack of privacy? after all, if i choose not to open my profile up, i do not think that just because somebody with an open profile mentions/tags me that i should show up in a google search.
Irene @ insomnia cures
· 8 months ago
Forget the look of facebook now, I really can't get into the upgrade itself. To me facebook was never meant to be a twitter. I have friends on my facebook account that I've known since I was around 5 days old, and while I occasionally don't mind hearing about their latest trip to the psychiatrist or an adventure Bali, I really don't need to know what kind of coffee they are having, instantly. The people on my friends list are not people I want knowing my instant updates, period.
Facebook was always that "occasional" update you needed as a fix for finding out things going on in my friends lives. I think that making it twitterish they are taking away something that was very appealing about Facebook's concept - the "occasional" friend update. Now it's no longer notification so much as a conversation, and I have friendfeed and twitter for that purpose.
KiShaw
· 8 months ago
Great assessment. I also wanted to give it a few days before assessing the new FB. I initially thought that the new layout wasn't so bad. I do like the ability to read status msgs from Pages such as Mashable. I also think the "hidden" option works well and is effective for blocking overwhelming feeds.
What I do not like is the lack of information presented in the existing feed about activities such as friending, "fanning", joining groups etc. The highlights area doesn't effectively present this information (at least not on my page). I believe that I learned about 50% of my former classmates because someone on my friends list friended them first and that info was presented in the Live/News Feed. I've also learned about new artists and organizations when a friend joined fan pages or groups. This ability seems to be lacking with the 'new FB'.
ElaineBenice
· 8 months ago
Agree; FB needs to figure who they are. The new pages are a mess, in my opinion. Twitter did it once, kept it simple, and is genius.
swag
· 8 months ago
Hence the trap of trying to be something you're not. You can only hope to be a second-rate Twitter at best, and now even you are no longer a good imitation of Facebook.
That would be called a "lose-lose" strategy.
StareClips.com
· 8 months ago
I always saw Twitter as being a poor man's Facebook. So, for Facebook to start becoming more like Twitter is clearly a step backward.
Patrick
· 8 months ago
I guess I am the only one seeing all of my friends who become fans of something appear in the right hand column as highlights of what they have done.
kayamm
· 8 months ago
I agree, and those rounded squares don't fit with the rest of the website design.
Erin
· 8 months ago
Completely agree. It's repetitive and confusing at times. I wish they'd lump everything together as well - I don't need to see every single gift a friend gives to other friends.
Kara Scharwath
· 8 months ago
Completely agree. Applications are done. And even if people do happen to end up on their friends' profiles, they're not going to be looking for information about what applications they've been using or the groups that they've joined.
Bibliophile
· 8 months ago
Nice assessment. I, too, have been trying to give the new FB the benefit of the double for a few days. Until I read your post I hadn't been able to put my finger on exactly what it felt like was missing. The new news feed does feel much more conversational -- I find myself commenting and reading comments more than I did on the old FB. And the FB model that clusters replies together under the item is MUCH more intuitive than the basic Twitter interface (I've never found twitter that interesting).
In fact there's so much conversation activity on the news feed that I hardly noticed that all of my friends' other activities were completely missing! I think you are absolutely right about how the old mixture of posts and activities gave you a richer idea of what your friends were doing, and I think Facebook has become less interesting and engaging for having done away with it. I see some of this content in RHS "Highlights" section, but it is far too static and non-narrative sitting over there -- plus I don't have any control over the mix of what appears there.
I'm okay with Facebook being a little more like Twitter (in fact, better than twitter in key ways as I've mentioned), but it should not sacrifice the aspects that made it like friendfeed. Speaking for myself, I don't have a critical mass of friends on either friendfeed or twitter to make either worth my time (I have largely dormant accounts on both), but facebook always seemed a great mix of the two. The mix is what always kept it engaging -- it would be a mistake to swing the pendulum too far away from this happy middle.
Colin Campbell
· 8 months ago
What I think.
Josh
· 8 months ago
Agreed. And you left out the worst part: friends on Twitter who suddenly think it's cool to repost their tweets as Facebook status updates. My news feed is now 50% friend spam.
Wesley Williams
· 8 months ago
The new facebook feed doesn't just include status updates. It includes shared items from you and your friends (links, photos etc.), application information (friend A has just taken quiz B), paid adverts etc. The only thing you mention that I haven't seen yet is a relationship status change.
Love the new facebook.
Josue Sanchez
· 8 months ago
I miss the "more of this user" and "less of this user" feature. I have almost 1,400 friends, and it has become much more cluttered now, because I see ALL of their activities. Not just the ones that I was interacting more with.
Leesa
· 8 months ago
Totally agree. As far as I can see (at least among my friends) NOBODY likes this new model.
SydneyBoy
· 8 months ago
I also do not like this new FB redesign for the simple reason that my Wall profile makes it seem as if I'm just talking to myself! This is especially true for those who frequently update their status and not enough friends' comments.
NL55
· 8 months ago
Facebook is TOAST. They know it as well and that is why they are copying Twitter in every way possible. It's a move that looks EXTREMELY weak and desperate on Facebook's part. That is why they are also buying Press and Blog write ups to try and get some attention on a service that is old, closed, bloated, and boring.
You wrote a great honest post, and fact is Facebook was then, Twitter is now, that's they way fads come and go! I think mashable should really mark this day as the day the tide has truly shifted to Twitter, GAME OVER ZUCK!
Jose Gonzalez
· 8 months ago
even more annoying is apps that post to your status message now. you will see an entry for each friend they sent it to. my feed is almost worthless at this point =/
camille
· 8 months ago
I agree...maybe its a good thing...i am spending MUCH less time in the pseudo-world and more in the real world...i imagine they will get the message soon and change it back. why do companies insist on following the leader? they are the LEADER because they did something DIFFERENT. facebook should know this...they used to be trend-setters now they seem to be eating Twitters dust. One twitter is definitely enough. sorry FB, you lose.
Sara
· 8 months ago
This is exactly how I feel. Thanks for putting it in such clear terms!
Tarla
· 8 months ago
I like the filters on the feed, but other than that I'm not fond of the redesign either. The status updates were my least favorite element to begin with.
Maggie
· 8 months ago
I totally agree with you...from a personal user perspective I think a lot was lost in the new design--the worst being, as you point out, the fact that you can no longer see what your friends are doing other than through the status updates they post--or maybe in that "highlights" section on the right side of the page? I still can't figure the whole thing out. The bottom line is that just as people were getting used to the last "new" profile look, FB changes it again.
I think the reason for the change was because FB is now catering towards businesses and wanted to make the public profile feature work better for business purposes. Which it does--or ostensibly does. One of the features of the new design that is really good for businesses is that "public profiles" (formerly "pages") get to have their updates feed into fans' news feeds. This is a huge thing for companies who used to have to rely on fans visiting their pages to view any posted content; now every time they post something it will show up in fans' news feeds. Well--SHOULD show up, according to FB--so far this feature doesn't seem to be working. So basically the most important functionality that made the changes worth gritting your teeth through if you're a business on FB doesn't even work.
I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg is going to respond to all the negative feedback by rolling back to the previous version like he did with the terms of service and let people have a voice in shaping the look of the site. On one hand, enough is enough--it's his company and service; but on the other hand, he set the precedent with the TOS change thing and now users expect to have the power to tell FB what to do rather than have FB just do it and have users like it or lump it.
Your Name*
· 8 months ago
I don't like that people can Publish gifts, pieces of flair etc. If one person sends a different gift to ten people all you see on your home page is who got a new gift.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
LOL! Gotta say that I think it is highly useless in its current iteration. Mashable? I consider it to be SMASHable.
Alex Shalman
· 8 months ago
I might be old school, but I still like the original facebook design a lot better. I got "used to" the second design. Now another change? I don't like it!
I stopped using Facebook fanatically once design 2 came along, so I'm no longer a "regular user" so my thought shouldn't be taken into consideration - thanks Facebook!
Andrew
· 8 months ago
Can't even see the birthdays coming up ion the days weeks ahead. Twits! (Tweets?). With much regret - the lifetreaming we enjoyed before was very intuitive and user -friendly
Marc David
· 8 months ago
I totally hate it. When I 1st saw it.. I felt it was a graphical version of Twitter. Utterly useless now. Glad it was free.
Andrew
· 8 months ago
Can't even see the birthdays coming up ion the days weeks ahead. Twits! (Tweets?). With much regret - the lifetreaming we enjoyed before was very intuitive and user -friendly
Adam Hendle
· 8 months ago
I also waited a while to ridicule the new fbook. But today after trying and failing to find where create an event button and my groups have gone, I am extremely disapointed and frustrated!!!
internetsuperstar
· 8 months ago
Completely agree, not only has it lowered the virality of Applications but also of Fan pages. The organization overhaul makes sense but the lowered dataflow is very harmful. I think FB is a little too caught up in Twitter-land. I really don't need more social networks with tenuous network connections, thank you.
Lynn Morton
· 8 months ago
My first reaction was that I hated it but after digging through a few blog posts about the changes, I realized that not ALL my hard work as an admin for some pages & groups would be lost. But as a user I tend to agree that lifestreaming is what made Facebook great. I understand their position about the conversation, but social networking focuses more on the individual if by no other fact than that the profile is the center of the set-up. The groups and pages are where the conversations (or the "one to many") are on a social network and with the new design those conversations seem less important than they once were. I go to Twitter for what twitter offers me, I want different things from Facebook. They are not the same entity, nor do I want them to be.
And people who don't know any better complain about the mundane/uber-personal tweets... What are they going to say now?
gael
· 8 months ago
agree wholeheartedly. boring. Looked forward to scanning my friends every morning and having many smiles seeing what they were up to. More valuable than it looked. Now seems there's little to draw me there. Too bad -
Brook Shinsky
· 8 months ago
I agree with everyone's comments - I feel like these updates are a digression, and more like Myspace, which I stopped visiting a year ago... I don't want to go to all of my 400+ friends pages to see what's going on - this is ridiculous! Bring back the old version!
D
· 8 months ago
Agreed. That sucks - Facebook took its most valuable asset in a general sense, and killed it. Addicts won’t be impacted quite as much, but huge bummer for everyone who is on the platform occasionally and like you said: simply don’t have the time to comb through their list of 30 or 300 friends to identify the key points of information that previously were delivered to our front doorstep, the first thing we’d see when arriving home.
Driven by intent or not, the change in model doesn’t provide value to me.
Phil Attey
· 8 months ago
Stan -
I completely agree. I, too, hesitated on casting judgment on the new layout. But after giving it a chance and really thinking it through, I don't think this was a good idea and I think they'll need to backtrack to stay on top.
I get it. Facebook is using their successful model of learning from their competition, which right now they fear is the RT experience users enjoy on Twitter, and are trying to incorporate it into their new layout. But what they're not grasping is that one of the reasons users flocked from MySpace to Facebook was that it was simpler and offered less information overload.
If they're hoping to retain the common user and attract new members, they're going to have to keep the basic platform simple, and provide the RT user experience as an option.
+ Phil
Karl Roche
· 8 months ago
ditto - it's pants
pabloCOOL
· 8 months ago
I, for one, really liked the lifestreaming concept...i agree with what you've said...if i want a Twitter like site...i'll go to Twitter...
Damian
· 8 months ago
Now, without lifestreaming, Facebook is boring.
Trevar Mazza
· 8 months ago
Great article. I was really looking forward to this update, but fb totally blew it. They've managed to break my addiction to the news feed by not giving me an easy way to prune it to my needs. Example, I have no interest in seeing quizes posted to my wall!
I feel they had nearly perfected the news feed during the last update. The only push they needed to make was to get people out of the third person, and more into the conversation. Now the feed (the conversation) is a hot mess, and practically useless. They would have nailed this update had utility not been sacrificed. Bad things happen when design truncates utility.
Trevar Mazza
· 8 months ago
Great article. I was really looking forward to this update, but fb totally blew it. They've managed to break my addiction to the news feed by not giving me an easy way to prune it to my needs. Example, I have no interest in seeing quizes posted to my wall!
I feel they had nearly perfected the news feed during the last update. The only push they needed to make was to get people out of the third person, and more into the conversation. Now the feed (the conversation) is a hot mess, and practically useless. They would have nailed this update had utility not been sacrificed. Bad things happen when design truncates utility.
Trevar Mazza
· 8 months ago
Great article. I was really looking forward to this update, but fb totally blew it. They've managed to break my addiction to the news feed by not giving me an easy way to prune it to my needs. Example, I have no interest in seeing quizes posted to my wall!
I feel they had nearly perfected the news feed during the last update. The only push they needed to make was to get people out of the third person, and more into the conversation. Now the feed (the conversation) is a hot mess, and practically useless. They would have nailed this update had utility not been sacrificed. Bad things happen when design truncates utility.
Trevar Mazza
· 8 months ago
Great article. I was really looking forward to this update, but fb totally blew it. They've managed to break my addiction to the news feed by not giving me an easy way to prune it to my needs. Example, I have no interest in seeing quizes posted to my wall!
I feel they had nearly perfected the news feed during the last update. The only push they needed to make was to get people out of the third person, and more into the conversation. Now the feed (the conversation) is a hot mess, and practically useless. They would have nailed this update had utility not been sacrificed. Bad things happen when design truncates utility.
Jonah Price
· 8 months ago
Application's virality is still alive and well. Just the other day I logged in and was disappointed to see half of my home page was dominated by an application that generated polls, because my Aunt had created just so many polls about the people she knows.
Lisa
· 8 months ago
Amen. Why does Facebook want to be Twitter? They are giving up their unique niche. They've buried the news feed and the live feed so deeply it's annoying just trying to find it and it was one of the best features and made them different from Twitter.. Now you can't ever see who your friends are becoming friends with, quashing the friend-to-friend networking aspect in favor of more anonymous connections. I agree that one Twitter is enough and I also feel that the "conversation" that takes place (or used to take place) on Facebook is different and richer than Twitter.
daz
· 8 months ago
Great post. This is the beginning of the end for Facebook I feel. Pointless trying to compete with twitter and microblogging, that ain't what facebook was about. All the stuff I liked about facebook - groups and event management - are now extremely hard to find. Also another thing, it seems sometimes your most recent status update does not appear on your home page. I have to go to my profile to remember what I last had as my status.
The one thing I'm glad is NOT in this version is the annoying 'People you may know' application. God, I hated that!
Antonia
· 8 months ago
People You May Know is still there - under the "Highlights"
Timothy West | PHOTONOMY
· 8 months ago
Its really annoying as facebook is for photos and walls and friends that you know no for status updates... they are trying too hard to be like twitter..
Michael Keller
· 8 months ago
My news feed shows way too much stuff. In addition to status updates, right now I see the link to this blog, I'm seeing flair someone posted to their own page, and earlier today I saw where one person sent something from one app to 11 different people, and each send was a separate news item. I left my own comments in "New Facebook home page: Facebook wants to be Twitter" http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=607708...
MonTemplar
· 8 months ago
As others here have pointed out, some of the 'missing' updated are now in the Highlights area on the right side... but only some, mind you.
Jason
· 8 months ago
"New" facebook has been gutted, with less function, choice, depth, privacy, and harder to connect with people. I'm co-ordinating various attempts to agitate for them to fix some of these things: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=610107...
Terry Rossi
· 8 months ago
I totally agree with this. I really enjoyed the "non-status" updates on Facebook. Who is sending lollipops and sperm to each other. What groups people are joining. How many new members I have in my groups (I still haven't figured out how to do that). Who is Friending who....where has it gone.
jack
· 8 months ago
agree completely.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
Well said, I agree with all the above points.
Marc Mendoza
· 8 months ago
What's missing is control of your feed page. I noticed that they removed this link: http://www.facebook.com/feed_prefs.php I remember when the news feed debuted people were up in arms over information overload - TMI! Now it seems everyone's upset because there's not enough (or maybe not the correct) information. Facebook needs to let each user find their own balance by giving users more control over what's being published. I'd also like to have at least some control over the 'Highlights'.
J Alabi
· 8 months ago
The only person who will be happy about the change to Facebook is Michael Arrington. The Facebook Open Press Day video even referred to the change in UI as "the Arrington switch". When you change the user experience for 175 million people just to please one blogger, something has seriously gone wrong. If they do not revert back to the more functional former UI, this will go down as the moment when Facebook jumped the shark.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
Precisely my own sentiment too. I miss the lifestreaming the 2008 Facebook provided. For example, to see if a friend uploaded pictures of a party we went to, I have to look at the right-most column. But that part is obscured by my netbook's monitor! If it were the 2008 Facebook, then I'd be in the know on my friends..
Instead of user's filtering the information in the news feed, Facebook already narrowed it down to status updates, notes and quizzes!
the pissed off majority
· 8 months ago
JOIN THE FACEBOOK SUICIDE PACT
Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have until MARCH 27th, 12AM EST to change back to the old pre-March 14th design of facebook. IF THEY DO NOT CHANGE IT BACK BEFORE MAR. 27th then I am deleting my account forever, and so are all of my friends. NOBODY likes facebook now. It is not something where you can 'get used to it'. Facebook is now a completely different website. IF FACEBOOK ISNT CHANGED BACK, THEN DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT ON MARCH 27TH.
Mark Zuckerberg has fundamentally changed how Facebook works and now EVERYONE IS PISSED OFF. If this was how the site ORIGINALLY was I never would have signed up for it, it never would have become popular and it would have a fraction of the users it has now. This bullshit needs to stop, and if Mark continues to fuck up, then the site is over for a TON of people. This is how Facebook ends.
R.I.P. Facebook Oct. 28, 2003 - Mar. 14, 2009
Gwen Henson
· 8 months ago
Your blog comments are exactly right. FB hasn't earned many visits from me recently. Certain friends were daily connections because I could see easily what they were up to. Change it back, I say!
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
It may sound bad coming from someone who told their facebook friends to stop whining about the new facebook, but I agree with what all was said on here. I wish they would at least allow us to arrange each area to how we want it. I use the poke feature more than most and it's now hidden well below the "highlights" area, and frankly I don't care about everyone's highlights because that used to be a part of the news feed area. I don't really even use the facebook apps anymore, because of what was said above, and most of them are all silly and you must invite so many friends. Facebook should allow us to keep the old homepage like MySpace does (did?) or arrange each area to our liking.
Alex Domsky
· 8 months ago
I totally, 100% agree.
Facebook needs to stop being like Twitter or at least give users a choice to switch back
Jase
· 8 months ago
I am working with someone on a total redesign of the new Facebook Homepage.
So far it is going well, We are looking for a web developer to program it. It is a userstyle so you will need Stylish/ greasemonkey.
I actually just started using Facebook about a week ago. I never got to see the old design, but the way you describe it seems a lot better than how it is now.
I don't really understand how you're supposed to keep up with what you're friends are doing. It seems like that center column should keep all of the updates, but sometimes when I click on a friend's profile I see things there that didn't show up on my side. It's annoying, because I feel like I'm missing out on what they're talking about. I thought keeping up with friends is what it was all about?
bradleyf81
· 8 months ago
I just recently started using Facebook, so I never got to see the old version. Based on your description though, I think I would have liked it better. I feel like I'm missing out on stuff because it doesn't show up on my page. I go to friends' profiles and see conversations or items posted that I totally missed. It's annoying. Aren't social sites supposed to be about keeping up with friends? How can I do that effectively if I have to click through each profile every time I log on?
FlossieT
· 8 months ago
Completely agree. It's not as if the status updates weren't already accessible - you've been able to view them all in one big list by clicking the Friends link for the longest time, and I often would. Trying to go head-to-head with Twitter is just stupid - the sites have different purposes and should stick to doing what they do best.
Will be interesting to see the impact this has on usage levels. If the homepage no longer entices people through the rest of the site, people are surely going to spend less time browsing.
Kris
· 8 months ago
I think they want us to "digg" (just couldn't resist) Hehe! for the info. RIP FAcebook!
Caitlin Leigh
· 8 months ago
i couldn't agree with you more. the whole spark of facebook was that it WAS a lifestream and not a conversation platform. why on earth they want to change that?
joem32
· 8 months ago
It all comes down to one very simple point, TOO MUCH INFORMATION. With out a means of separating the new Facebook feed, it is entirely useless. I do not have the time to go into the permissions and settings for how I view everyone's information just so that my feed is more pertinent. Facebook, you have given Twitter a glimpse into the future and educated them on what they will need to implement. Twitter is more agile than you are Facebook... better get to work on a fix fast boys.
Rachel Burkot
· 8 months ago
I agree and disagree with you. I think it's good that there's an emphasis on real time and live updates because that is obviously where technology is heading, but I too find it frustrating that the home page doesn't reveal everything new, only new statuses. On one hand, it's good that Facebook recognizes Twitter's popularity, but I think their mistake is trying to be exactly like Twitter - in fact, dumbing themselves down to be like Twitter. The unique feature of Facebook was ALL the information you get, and now they're limiting themselves to only real time info. We'll see what happens next.
Lisa
· 8 months ago
I soooo agree with you! I HATE the new feed....BUT as someone has pointed out, Facebook mobile has not changed, so I find myself using it more, and I see something interesting there, I will check my friends' profile. Otherwise, I do not feel as connected to my friends as once did....sort of like real life! Bummer!
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
I believe this new Twitter like Facebook, is an attempt for Facebook to make a stronger move to buy/takeover twitter.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
The livestream concept was my regular page on FB. I left it up all day long and could see the stream of info of my friends
Elias
· 8 months ago
first thing I did was install that nice script for Stylish (Mozilla Addon) that gets rid of the horrible freak show called "Highlights" on the right. It works fine.
and now I'm left with Twitter in a middle column of Facebook
nice going Tweetbook!!
Christine
· 8 months ago
Couldn't agree with you more. If I wanted Twitter I'd use Twitter (I do use Twitter but more as a news feed from orgs I'm interested in). Yesterday I had to wade through a long scroll of a friend's "liked" iLike music, plus another friend's list of people she sent Peeps to. But I felt disconnected from my friends. I probably won't use FB as much as I have been. Interestingly, in the past few days I've noticed several friends accidentally comment on the wrong person's status, or update their status when they thought they were writing on someone's Wall. Just a coincidence or bad UI design?
Melissa
· 8 months ago
GREAT!!!! I loved reading this post, it is almost exactly how I feel, thank you for putting it into words.
K
· 8 months ago
Something else: applications are now spamming people's status, which makes them much harder to ignore. You can either choose to totally ignore the user, or you have to see all the useless quiz apps they use. In the old setup you had more fine-grained control over this.
Magus None
· 8 months ago
It seems like a lot of the complaints about the previous redesign was that facebook was too invasive to people. Now it sounds like the argument is that facebook isn't invasive enough. Where is the happy medium here?
bman
· 8 months ago
This is spot on, I dont go on facebook as much as before bc of this update.
Facebook User
· 8 months ago
Completely agree!
New Facebook is New Coke.
Greg Stigall
· 8 months ago
I completely agree with you.
Alex Price
· 8 months ago
I agree, I loved the old FaceBook, it was more interesting and the page was a lot freakin bigger. I can't even access the marketplace anymore and for the love of God, everyone wants to post a video. It's not YouTube, it's FaceBook!
face what?
· 8 months ago
All good things have to come to an end...it just might be Facebook's time to fade into the night! See ya, facebook! it was good while it lasted!
Your Name*
· 8 months ago
Birthdays! Bring them back.
face what?
· 8 months ago
@ the pissed off majority... count me in, lets show facebook we are serious!!!!hehe! 27th it is then! counting down now....
RIP Facebook!
Christos Winter
· 8 months ago
Ahh facebook... what would we do without you?
Jeff
· 8 months ago
I am just now getting into facebook so I will never know what the "old" format was like!
John Hodgson
· 8 months ago
I have to agree; and so do most of my contacts over there as they have mostly jumped ship in favour of Myspace, and today, I closed my account there in favour of myspace. I already have a twitter account, I don’t need another!
Brian
· 8 months ago
Gotta say that while the concept of Actually Going to People's Profiles to Get New Information (gasp!) may seem daunting to some, for us longtime facebook users... well, that's the only way it used to be done. And I'd say that it possibly lead to more use, as people stalked about their friends pages trying to see what had changed.
Now, that said, the Real News Feed made that a lot easier, and I don't think that doing away with that was a very good decision. This post is very accurate in that, well, it just makes Facebook a lot less interesting and informative.
Marito
· 8 months ago
They won't change it because they did and archived just what they wanted.. But I HATE this new design. A big loss not to have the News Feed and Live feed anymore.
Braidwood
· 8 months ago
I'm with you. I don’t like the new facebook and its not a matter of not liking change or the new look. I don’t like the new look, but the reason I haven’t been on FB in a week is that the functionality has changed. It doesn’t provide the service it did before. Very sad, because it provided a very useful service to me before: the ability to casually socialize with people I know.
It used to have a block party feel. I could look at the home page and see what people were up to. Now it has a frenetic feel. I can look at the home page and see every single activity the friend who happens to be on right now has done. Its irritating and frenetic and no longer functional for socializing.
Preeti
· 8 months ago
I have had Facebook for almost three years and been through every redesign process. Change is hard and some of the design iterations were not in my taste.
What I love about Facebook is the lifestreaming; seeing my friends who are all over world and see what they are doing. I also love the simplicity of Facebook.
Now I have to look at 7 (seven!) different places on the homepage to achieve almost nothing. I have apps in the lower left, chat windows and updates in the lower right, some crap column on the left, some status updates in the center, you get the picture...
I do not believe FB had a usability group whatsoever for the new redesign. I think our little 24 year friend Mark, has money, fame, and power in his bloodstream now and has left the users out to dry.
I would hate to blackout Facebook as being a long time user, but if they keep this crap up, there may be no other choice. Sad day indeed.
Diana Tri Wulandari
· 8 months ago
well put. the new changes made me feel conservative. like the lots that so much want to resist changes but oh-so-could not.
Geoffrey Bernardo Van Wyk
· 8 months ago
I do not even feel like using it anymore, but, unfortunately, many of my friends have signed up recently, so I have to stay for their sakes.
Alex Burgess
· 8 months ago
The very thing I loved about facebook was its simplicity and ease to stay updated... Having that all in on play was very useful and now, well, it just sucks...
Alex Burgess
· 8 months ago
The thing I loved about facebook was its simplicity. It was so easy to see what was going on and what everyone else was doing unlike myspace etc. which are all about spending hellish amounts of time posting and reading. I feel like it's no longer as easy as it used to be, and a lot of the logic of facebook has been lost...
Cherie Yoder
· 8 months ago
I agree. I am NOT a fan. I've switched to Facebooking almost entirely from my phone b/c it still follows the old format. This is the first Facebook change I've minded, much less intensely disliked.
RMSe17
· 8 months ago
You got to be kidding me.. You liked the last design that was terrible, and dont like the current design that cleaned things up? News feed and live feed were crap. Apps were crap too. They were turning a light weight person browser website into Myspace. Now it's a little better. But not quite. I wish facebook would go back to allowing only .edu emails, keep all the scrubs out.
All Comments
Were these all intentional design choices the Facebook developers are intent on retaining or is this more a case that they are open to making further changes and upgrades if users want them?
I believe this also holds true for becoming a "fan" of a fan page - I have been picking up fewer fans because the viral aspect of fanhood is now gone. Someone becomes a fan of me, and it doesn't appear but in the person's profile. FTL
Pass it on
The feed page looks like it has been "cobbled together" by someone who has never attended a "how to build design and build a usable website" course.
If they want it to be like twitter, the friend limit will be an issue, then again we could all do what scoble does and head on over to Friendfeed. Personally for those that want to connect around shared interests, I'm off to visit Ning :-)
Especially with the comments on Twitter. Separate services, for separate things. You don't see Twitter introducing extensive profile pages, do you?
One indication that this is a knee-jerk reaction to Twitter's rise is that the layout (CSS/HTML) hasn't even been tested properly. I'm hardly in the dark ages using the most recent FireFox 2 (rather than upgrading to 3 for now), but there are a number of things that just don't work or are completely out of alignment. That's not the Facebook we used to love...
They shouldn't be scared of Twitter - that's for people to passively follow celebrities and a few people they don't really like right now. Facebook is for seeing what your real friends are really up to, not just the few outliers who can be bothered to actively update their status.
Especially with the comments on Twitter. Separate services, for separate things. You don't see Twitter introducing extensive profile pages, do you?
If we get in the live feed what we have in the "new profil" (I love how they aggregate), it will rock...
Has some insider some information?
Now apps can publish stories that appear soon thereafter on all the users' friends' home pages. However, they must be short stories which generally require a confirmation from the user before being published.
This new situation is better for apps that implement short stories as now they can appear on the home page whereas before most apps has no chance to appear on the home page.
Very disappointing, very...
More apps will have to include that in their development in order to increase the viral-ability (new word, 2 points for me!) of their app.
@MatthewLoop
Facebook was always that "occasional" update you needed as a fix for finding out things going on in my friends lives. I think that making it twitterish they are taking away something that was very appealing about Facebook's concept - the "occasional" friend update. Now it's no longer notification so much as a conversation, and I have friendfeed and twitter for that purpose.
What I do not like is the lack of information presented in the existing feed about activities such as friending, "fanning", joining groups etc. The highlights area doesn't effectively present this information (at least not on my page). I believe that I learned about 50% of my former classmates because someone on my friends list friended them first and that info was presented in the Live/News Feed. I've also learned about new artists and organizations when a friend joined fan pages or groups. This ability seems to be lacking with the 'new FB'.
That would be called a "lose-lose" strategy.
In fact there's so much conversation activity on the news feed that I hardly noticed that all of my friends' other activities were completely missing! I think you are absolutely right about how the old mixture of posts and activities gave you a richer idea of what your friends were doing, and I think Facebook has become less interesting and engaging for having done away with it. I see some of this content in RHS "Highlights" section, but it is far too static and non-narrative sitting over there -- plus I don't have any control over the mix of what appears there.
I'm okay with Facebook being a little more like Twitter (in fact, better than twitter in key ways as I've mentioned), but it should not sacrifice the aspects that made it like friendfeed. Speaking for myself, I don't have a critical mass of friends on either friendfeed or twitter to make either worth my time (I have largely dormant accounts on both), but facebook always seemed a great mix of the two. The mix is what always kept it engaging -- it would be a mistake to swing the pendulum too far away from this happy middle.
Love the new facebook.
You wrote a great honest post, and fact is Facebook was then, Twitter is now, that's they way fads come and go! I think mashable should really mark this day as the day the tide has truly shifted to Twitter, GAME OVER ZUCK!
I think the reason for the change was because FB is now catering towards businesses and wanted to make the public profile feature work better for business purposes. Which it does--or ostensibly does. One of the features of the new design that is really good for businesses is that "public profiles" (formerly "pages") get to have their updates feed into fans' news feeds. This is a huge thing for companies who used to have to rely on fans visiting their pages to view any posted content; now every time they post something it will show up in fans' news feeds. Well--SHOULD show up, according to FB--so far this feature doesn't seem to be working. So basically the most important functionality that made the changes worth gritting your teeth through if you're a business on FB doesn't even work.
I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg is going to respond to all the negative feedback by rolling back to the previous version like he did with the terms of service and let people have a voice in shaping the look of the site. On one hand, enough is enough--it's his company and service; but on the other hand, he set the precedent with the TOS change thing and now users expect to have the power to tell FB what to do rather than have FB just do it and have users like it or lump it.
I stopped using Facebook fanatically once design 2 came along, so I'm no longer a "regular user" so my thought shouldn't be taken into consideration - thanks Facebook!
With much regret - the lifetreaming we enjoyed before was very intuitive and user -friendly
With much regret - the lifetreaming we enjoyed before was very intuitive and user -friendly
And people who don't know any better complain about the mundane/uber-personal tweets... What are they going to say now?
Driven by intent or not, the change in model doesn’t provide value to me.
I completely agree. I, too, hesitated on casting judgment on the new layout. But after giving it a chance and really thinking it through, I don't think this was a good idea and I think they'll need to backtrack to stay on top.
I get it. Facebook is using their successful model of learning from their competition, which right now they fear is the RT experience users enjoy on Twitter, and are trying to incorporate it into their new layout. But what they're not grasping is that one of the reasons users flocked from MySpace to Facebook was that it was simpler and offered less information overload.
If they're hoping to retain the common user and attract new members, they're going to have to keep the basic platform simple, and provide the RT user experience as an option.
+ Phil
I feel they had nearly perfected the news feed during the last update. The only push they needed to make was to get people out of the third person, and more into the conversation. Now the feed (the conversation) is a hot mess, and practically useless. They would have nailed this update had utility not been sacrificed. Bad things happen when design truncates utility.
I feel they had nearly perfected the news feed during the last update. The only push they needed to make was to get people out of the third person, and more into the conversation. Now the feed (the conversation) is a hot mess, and practically useless. They would have nailed this update had utility not been sacrificed. Bad things happen when design truncates utility.
I feel they had nearly perfected the news feed during the last update. The only push they needed to make was to get people out of the third person, and more into the conversation. Now the feed (the conversation) is a hot mess, and practically useless. They would have nailed this update had utility not been sacrificed. Bad things happen when design truncates utility.
I feel they had nearly perfected the news feed during the last update. The only push they needed to make was to get people out of the third person, and more into the conversation. Now the feed (the conversation) is a hot mess, and practically useless. They would have nailed this update had utility not been sacrificed. Bad things happen when design truncates utility.
Why does Facebook want to be Twitter? They are giving up their unique niche. They've buried the news feed and the live feed so deeply it's annoying just trying to find it and it was one of the best features and made them different from Twitter.. Now you can't ever see who your friends are becoming friends with, quashing the friend-to-friend networking aspect in favor of more anonymous connections.
I agree that one Twitter is enough and I also feel that the "conversation" that takes place (or used to take place) on Facebook is different and richer than Twitter.
The one thing I'm glad is NOT in this version is the annoying 'People you may know' application. God, I hated that!
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=610107...
I remember when the news feed debuted people were up in arms over information overload - TMI!
Now it seems everyone's upset because there's not enough (or maybe not the correct) information.
Facebook needs to let each user find their own balance by giving users more control over what's being published.
I'd also like to have at least some control over the 'Highlights'.
Instead of user's filtering the information in the news feed, Facebook already narrowed it down to status updates, notes and quizzes!
Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have until MARCH 27th, 12AM EST to change back to the old pre-March 14th design of facebook. IF THEY DO NOT CHANGE IT BACK BEFORE MAR. 27th then I am deleting my account forever, and so are all of my friends. NOBODY likes facebook now. It is not something where you can 'get used to it'. Facebook is now a completely different website. IF FACEBOOK ISNT CHANGED BACK, THEN DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT ON MARCH 27TH.
Mark Zuckerberg has fundamentally changed how Facebook works and now EVERYONE IS PISSED OFF. If this was how the site ORIGINALLY was I never would have signed up for it, it never would have become popular and it would have a fraction of the users it has now. This bullshit needs to stop, and if Mark continues to fuck up, then the site is over for a TON of people. This is how Facebook ends.
R.I.P. Facebook
Oct. 28, 2003 - Mar. 14, 2009
Facebook needs to stop being like Twitter or at least give users a choice to switch back
So far it is going well, We are looking for a web developer to program it. It is a userstyle so you will need Stylish/ greasemonkey.
for more info on the Facebook Redesign Userstyle go here: http://www.jeayese.com/?p=805
http://zafarali.posterous.com/how-facebook-shou...
It would be way better. with the one line stories in between the big ones
I don't really understand how you're supposed to keep up with what you're friends are doing. It seems like that center column should keep all of the updates, but sometimes when I click on a friend's profile I see things there that didn't show up on my side. It's annoying, because I feel like I'm missing out on what they're talking about. I thought keeping up with friends is what it was all about?
Will be interesting to see the impact this has on usage levels. If the homepage no longer entices people through the rest of the site, people are surely going to spend less time browsing.
and now I'm left with Twitter in a middle column of Facebook
nice going Tweetbook!!
New Facebook is New Coke.
freakin bigger. I can't even access the marketplace anymore and for the love of
God, everyone wants to post a video. It's not YouTube, it's FaceBook!
count me in, lets show facebook we are serious!!!!hehe! 27th it is then! counting down now....
RIP Facebook!
Now, that said, the Real News Feed made that a lot easier, and I don't think that doing away with that was a very good decision. This post is very accurate in that, well, it just makes Facebook a lot less interesting and informative.
It used to have a block party feel. I could look at the home page and see what people were up to. Now it has a frenetic feel. I can look at the home page and see every single activity the friend who happens to be on right now has done. Its irritating and frenetic and no longer functional for socializing.
What I love about Facebook is the lifestreaming; seeing my friends who are all over world and see what they are doing. I also love the simplicity of Facebook.
Now I have to look at 7 (seven!) different places on the homepage to achieve almost nothing. I have apps in the lower left, chat windows and updates in the lower right, some crap column on the left, some status updates in the center, you get the picture...
I do not believe FB had a usability group whatsoever for the new redesign. I think our little 24 year friend Mark, has money, fame, and power in his bloodstream now and has left the users out to dry.
I would hate to blackout Facebook as being a long time user, but if they keep this crap up, there may be no other choice. Sad day indeed.
the new changes made me feel conservative.
like the lots that so much want to resist changes but oh-so-could not.
News feed and live feed were crap. Apps were crap too. They were turning a light weight person browser website into Myspace. Now it's a little better. But not quite.
I wish facebook would go back to allowing only .edu emails, keep all the scrubs out.