Users logging into Facebook today will be hit with a surprise - old Facebook is gone, and so is the little link in the upper right-hand corner which, for the past few weeks, allowed users to return to the familiar layout. Facebook’s owners have decided that no trace of the old Facebook should be allowed to survive, and now all Facebook users are forced to use a new, more scattered layout. Gone are the familiar columns and boxes, replaced with floating sections and tabs which must be navigated to find links which were previously fully visible.
Facebook’s owners claim that, of the over 40 million users, 30 million users would willing use new Facebook back when the option to also use old Facebook was offered. In the official Facebook Blog, the new Facebook Project Manager Mark Slee posts a glowing report of how wonderful and successful the new Facebook layout is - calling it the best one so far. He acknowledges that some people will be “uncomfortable” with the change, but says they’ll be won over eventually.
A massive backlash has occurred because of the change. Regular Facebook users have invaded the Facebook Developers forum, which is normally only for Facebook developers, prompting the Facebook Platform Team to create a forum devoted to user feedback. Many groups have popped up to protest the permanent change. I Hate the New Facebookhas over 890,000 members, Petition Against the “New Facebook” has over 1 million members and 1,000,000 Against the New Facebook Layout has over 1.2 million members as of 1pm CST, September 12, 2008. A petition has even been started at Petition Online, and it has received over 83,000 signatures so far. To compare - a group supporting new Facebook, called1,000,000 Against Petitions Against the new Facebook! had only 12 members as of 4:16pm CST, September 12, 2008.
I’ve found new Facebook makes my life more difficult. I’ve had to go to an actual application’s page to completely remove it, and edit all my other applications to undo new Facebook settings. My XKCD feed no longer works, so I can’t see the latest comic on my profile. Bumper Stars,Superheroes and Scrabble Beta won’t show in my profile, and when I view my application list, it doesn’t immediately show - I have to hunt through tabs to find them. In addition, applications I have removed still show up in the Wall Permissions section, and the Bumper Sticker application shows up in my feeds filter, even though I have never used that application.
I used to love visiting Facebook, and I’d recommend it to longtime friends who weren’t on a social networkings site. I won’t be doing that anymore, so long as new Facebook is the only option.
Read [Courant.com] Also Read [ZDNet.com] Also Read [Facebook Blog] Site [Facebook] Site [Facebook Developers Forum]
No comments:
Post a Comment