Facebook Gets Facelift, Allows Users More Control
The popular social networking site Facebook is getting a new facelift to reflect changes in how users communicate with each other and filter unwanted spam.
The redesign will give user profiles more prominence to the newest information, and it is cracking down on applications that violate privacy or user-control guidelines.
Facebook has also expanded the user’s wall, the section of a member’s personal profile page where friends can leave comments and photos. People will now be able to add items more easily, and the Wall will incorporate reports on a user’s activities previously found on a user’s "Mini-Feed."
Both Facebook and Myspace are reorganizing their layouts this summer to reduce clutter and make information easier to find.
Facebook has been alerting users of the future changes in recent weeks. The site first outlined the facelift in May and plans to let users start testing it this week. A complete switch won’t occur for at least another week or two.
These newer updates for social networking sites reflect the growing comfort people have with sharing details about their personal lives more frequently and in smaller bursts – such as on the "microblogging" site Twitter.
Mark Slee, lead product manager at Facebook, said instead of creating a full photo album or blog entry, Facebook users are apt to share just a single image or update the one-sentence status message on their profile.
Profiles are now loaded with information generated from games and other applications that Facebook started letting outside developers write last year.
The new site will offer members a cleaner and simpler set of the Web pages, which make up personal profiles. The Facebook redesign seeks to make these now-disparate pieces of information easier to find at a central location. The site will now feature tabs to reduce clutter and organize information.
"Facebook is trying to weed out the non-important social activities," said Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst with Forrester Research.
"The redesign makes your profile more relevant to other users, telling them who is doing what, where are they and what are they doing socially."
Additionally, users will get more control over what appears on their feeds, with the ability to add as well as delete individual items.
No information about a user’s online behavior that wasn’t previously public would suddenly become posted to the Wall, according to Slee.
Facebook faced privacy criticisms when feeds first began, though now they are a staple of the site.
Last year a tracking tool called "Beacon" caught users off guard by broadcasting information about their shopping habits and activities at other Web sites. Beacon can now be turned off.
New profiles will first be offered as an optional view to members before gradually being implemented for everyone.
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