Facebook users got caught unaware when they discovered Facebook look and feel and content placement changes recently. No one likes change even if it is minor and done on a site that is “free” to majority of the 300 million users who spend time networking on Facebook. (Always makes me wonder why free sites still have so many demanding users but that’s the topic for another blog.)
What changed on Facebook?
Earlier this year Facebook created a Twitter-type feed with real-time updates and all the status updates from friends which were displayed without any screening or filters.
This new changes on Facebook has a News Feed which filters posts and status updates that interest you from your network. It makes things more convenient because you see only those items which your friends have found the need to comment or highlight in any way.
Other minor changes were also included which include highlighting things, moving the events tabs a bit higher, and highlighting birthdays to make absent-minded friends remember better.
So what’s the big deal then?
You see something called the “Live Feed”. If you decide to view the default News Feed, a bubble alongside the Live Feed link tells you the total number of posts; so you can tell which ones were not presented in the Live Feed.
The Live Feed keeps refreshing as new posts come in and the screen updates itself. Whenever this happen you have to scroll to get to wherever you were when you were interrupted by the updated posts. That can be a teeny bit annoying I suppose.
The other problem with the new News Feed is that it shows comments from your friends and their friends and so on. I’m not sure yet if settings can be changed to remove the comments from your friends friends, need to check that out.
Change is good and yet….
Over half a million people have joined a group called “CHANGE FACEBOOK BACK TO NORMAL”
All I can say to those people is that with Twitter and Facebook trying to outdo one another; more changes on both sites are going to be norm rather than the exception.
(Not to mention that those half-a-million people need a life; I mean come on, isn’t social networking a MEANS to an end?)