Forum Moderators: rogerd
Facebook's new face is drawing frowns from some of its users. They're grousing about a spanking new redesign intended to unclutter their profiles on the social network. Several groups requesting a return to the old design have surfaced, including one with 1 million members.Facebook has shifted millions of users to its new design in a bid to draw more members and advertisers to a cleaner interface. Facebook's torrid growth — it has added 90 million members the past two years — has put it in a prime position to vie for an estimated $2 billion market for social-networking ads this year.
But the new look has rankled some. "It's really difficult to read, and I don't like the tabs that you have to go through to see the whole profile. I hate it," says Jenny Smelyanets, 22, a public relations specialist in Palo Alto, Calif.
"It's really difficult to read, and I don't like the tabs that you have to go through to see the whole profile. I hate it,"
Well boo-hoo Jenny! Facebook basically has to do this to increase ad revenue and lower bandwidth usage because their massive user base is starting to lose them money.
It's one thing changing the design to build ad revenue but if you alienate the people who use it then there will not be any users there to get any revenue from (worst case scenario obviously).
there will not be any users there to get any revenue from
The masses who use Facebook consistently are so addicted that they'll use it regardless of how it looks. They've made changes before...people complained, people got over it.
Well boo-hoo Jenny! Facebook basically has to do this to increase ad revenue and lower bandwidth usage because their massive user base is starting to lose them money.
There's a bit more to it than Jenny's petulant complaint I'm afraid. The new facebook is almost totally inaccessible to screen readers and other assistive technologies. It's a sorry, sorry state when a recode of a major site in this day and age ends up being a massive step backwards in accessibility.
The masses who use Facebook consistently are so addicted that they'll use it regardless of how it looks. They've made changes before...people complained, people got over it.
Not true. I was a fairly regular eBay user, (buyer and seller). When they rolled out the new Ajax design it made it very difficult to search the way I always had, (e.g.- on eBay motors, you need to jump through hoops to whittle down the search on multiple criteria --- on regular eBay searches keep defaulting to "best possible match" when I prefer "ending soonest" and set it that way).
I beta tested the new eBay interface a couple times, (on eBay motors first), gave them feedback, and in the end, everything I hated about it was rolled out anyway and I was "forced" to use it. My solution: I cut down my eBay activity by 95% since the interface change.
Can't they just make the new design the default (for people who don't care) and give those who do care a choice to switch back to the old design?
People complained about the status update wall. Facebook kept the wall. The complaints stopped. Facebook will just wait it out until people stop complaining.
Now it is just a lot more like Myspace, and people left Myspace in droves for the simpler Facebook
1,000,000 AGAINST THE NEW FACEBOOK LAYOUT!
2,536,246 members
Petition Against the "New Facebook"
1,582,765 members
Please Keep the Old Facebook. The New Version is A Disaster
477,228 members
I PREFER THE OLD FACEBOOK'
309,507 members
Now, seems the lad's not unduly bothered that also upset his users. (Tho at least Facebook did respond when people complained re Facebook spreading their info around)
Maybe I'm not using Facebook in ways various others do, but not too worried re new facebook vs old.
And we all know that folks are more prone to speak out about things they feel negatively about over any folks who like it. Just the way of the masses.
If you Look under the hood of the new Facebook, its stuffed with amazing quantities of Javascript and different CSS style sheets files. I'm sure not every page needs that much Javascript. Will they just continue buying more servers or look at removing the redundant code and making it a more efficient Facebook?
[edited by: Seb7 at 11:10 am (utc) on Sep. 26, 2008]
