Facebook has always had much cleaner, less chaotic profile pages than “anything goes” competitor MySpace (MySpace continues to experiment with less chaotic default themes). Facebook just seems to like things to stay orderly and structured on their site. But as users add dozens of applications and other content to their profiles, it’s becoming harder for friends to quickly find basic information about you.
They recently allowed users to clean up their own profiles. Today, they’re announcing further changes - a multi-tab profile that separates personal information, wall posts and photos into separate pages.
Screen shots are below. One thing that’s unclear, and that I’m trying to get more information on, is whether wall posts have now been combined with the news feed. The screen shots suggest they have. Also, I’m assuming the tabs are loaded with Javascript, so the pages aren’t refreshing every time a user clicks to a different area of the profile, but I have not confirmed that yet either.
Application developers aren’t going to like the new layout because it looks like they no longer appear on every profile page view - viewers will have to click on a tab to see the user’s installed applications. In a blog post last Friday giving developers a heads up on the upcoming changes, though, this was spun as good news. We’ll see how they react.
This is not being rolled out immediately. Facebook has set up a Facebook Profiles Previews group to track feedback and keep interested users up to date.
hopefuly theres one tab for applications so that i can avoid that tab
That is a great move….clutter free FB profile!
bs, good call!
Not sure this solves much. I can already clean up profile pages by minimizing applications. Any apps I choose to minimize Fbook remembers they were minimized by me, so that anyones profile I go to I can choose to minimize things I don’t want to see.
Looks like an adaptation (in parts) of the mobile (iPhone) UI.
Nice …
Mike,
Nice info. This brings into clear relief Facebook’s strong points. It is primarily a photo sharing application and group messaging platform. In fact, the wall is very much like a closed twitter. The about page is the identity piece.
Apps definitely appear to be marginalized in this design.
call it controlled chaos
Motion seconded, Ryan - they used tabs for the iPhone UI first - which is actually quite something.
And about the app developers being bothered by this upcoming change - didn’t FB create that ‘extended profile’ option, anyway? It automatically moved all of those corny “I-don’t-feel-like-actually-deleting-all-of-them-one-by-one” apps. They’ve realized that they went too far with these, and are now trying to go back to their older simplicity.
Narenda: you are out to lunch. flickr is a way better photo sharing application and flickr is a better group messaging app (well it would be if they could keep it running.) Facebook is all about useless applications like virtual gift-giving and super-duper-ficking-retarded-walls.
I like TechCrunch, but why is this news? “Facebook adds tabs!” Umm, yeah, tabs to organize have been around online since…well, the incarnation of the Internets by A. Gore.
/sarcasm
Would have been more interesting had you gone out and actual polled Developers about their reaction and analysis of what it means to them.
So who is Holly Ann?
Mike - do you know which pages the apps go on? It’s kind of unclear from the information that FB posted.
I think this will be a mixed bag for app dev’s such as myself (well soon to be), a better fb is a better place to be so thats a plus, and we can all agree that there has been a bit of backlash against apps of late (to say the least). On the negative side if apps are hidden they are marginalized and the distribution value fb brings is reduced. what I would like to see is balance, keep improving the U/I by all means, and then roll out additional features, integration points, and distribution channels for apps. balance is good.
@studs
There will be an option to add additional tabs for favorite applications.
@ studs - It looks like the Facebook apps will go on the “Wall” page…
I think that tabs are a good use of space as a way to decrease the profile page length. These additions only take up a small amount of space, but the overall experience and usability of the site are greatly increased.
I figure people were sick of scrolling and wasting time, so they complained to Facebook. This is the company’s answer/solution.
Cheers,
Aidan
http://www.MappingTheWeb.com
@studs
As well as on the Wall tab. That bunny on the bottom left is the (fluff)Friends application.
this seems to be pulling from the iPhone interface, which so many people have raved about. interesting that they are following the success of their own slimmed down mobile approach.
This is actually very good. I’m undecided on the News Feed and the Wall integrated - it could be interesting from a social perspective, but it’s also a strange (and radical) change. At least now, application developers will take much more advantage of the news feed, and the new layout will promote responsible app design, instead of the early days where spam was the key to success.
Thanks, everybody. Do you know if the tabs will be based on app (SuperWall, FunWall) or company (RockYou, Slide)?
Very good move. I like organized views. I hope you can set custom privacy for each tab.
Keeping it clean and simple. I like.
I still fail to see the utility of facebook beyond being a huge time sink…
From the usability point isn’t that too many links on the left and top levels. You can almost click on any text on the top 75px and left 125px. Average internet user may found this whole thing confusing.
Wow! Tabs! Amazing!
Nothing else in the news…?
I wonder if there’s technical analysis of comments after a TC post. Like a stock chart that shows the history of how a company’s stock reacts after earnings. Seems to me that there is a correlation to TC blog posts. I think the comments after the post might be equal to after hours trading. The sentiment doesn’t seem to be the rocket ride up that is once was for Facebook. The day of the week should be taken into consideration too. I like Sunday evening posts best, they get the most response, especially if they have a little spice in them like Seattle vs. the Valley. Oh well.
I find the FaceBook interface just as cluttered as MySpace.
wow. tabs!
Hi5 has had tabs since its inception.
it’s not some disruptive concept… but it’s about time.
Something tells me that the more features Facebook adds to the site, the less popular it will get.
I think there is a whole different path Facebook could have been taking. I’m not sure what it is, but, I think the whole minimal thing was their biggest selling point.
Am I alone with this thought/prediction?
James
from
http://FaceySpacey.com, Your One Stop Social Media Shop
Facebook needs to get into other industries like google. Their one way thinking will make them in they end like sharper image(filed for bankruptcy).
Think the interesting thing here is not necessarily in the fact that the tabs have been created (although it is an improvement in tidying up the chaos that is a Facebook profile), but in the fact that this creates space in the proposition to expand out into new areas to allow Facebook to achieve total domination on the web!
E.g. if Facebook wants to be everybody’s hub and start-point on the web they can now offer a tab that offers a start page type experience to allow people to go further in consolidating all their favorite content, tools and services, and the user can opt to keep it private for their own consumption (e.g. email and other private things), or share elements that they want to (so it would be kind of combining the start page proposition with the consolidated activity feed proposition, a la friendfeed, helping to take on both of these types of competitors). It would kind of be the reverse of what Netvibes is doing with their latest release where they’ve now introduced social networking functionality to their start page proposition. And it would be all about keeping users on Facebook longer, and making it everybody’s first port of call on the web.
Am sure that there are other areas that they’ve got an eye on by doing this, but I think it’s a smart move both for the good of the current site and in creating the potential to expand out into new areas (and following on from CAR’s comment above I guess one big tab could be ‘SEARCH’, with a nice big search box and results page, to give the Microsoft ads a better home on Facebook, to try and grab a bit of Google’s market share and to really embed web search into the Facebook experience).
And if diversification is what they’re looking at then as long as it’s designed well - and people can chose how they want to use Facebook without things being forced on them - then I think James Gillmore’s concern (comment above) about dilution/loss of popularity can be side-stepped.
There, that’s my comment for the day!
Oh, and I guess it will also improve performance/load time for users who really load up their Facebook profiles with stuff.
Free the clutter …
… so theres more room for advertising
Michael,
The caption on the screenshot from the group specifically states that they’re merging the wall and news feed:
“The new Wall tab displays recent Wall posts as well as recent photos, posted items, updated status messages, and other new content. This makes your friends’ Walls more relevant and more integrated into their profiles.”
this is really great!
Hey Mike,
What facebook has set up to communicate these changes is NOT a GROUP. It is in fact a PAGE. (where people can become fans)
A page with no wall for feedback.
Facebook wante you to email comments to them so that they can track.
The issue is that they are really using this PAGE as a way to disseminate information and not to collect valuable feedback.
http://facereviews.com/2008/02.....k-profiles
cheers!
At last- but we did it first,
http://www.exiva.com
share your life, treasure the privacy
It seems like an interesting way to organize the content. It makes sense to run most of your interactive content first, then allow a person to get info about a person in the next tab. With any luck, this might cut down on some of the app spam, but where there’s a system, there will always be someone there to abuse it.
Yeah, it does seem like the wall has been rolled up into the news feed. Be pretty nice as long as they have some sorting options at some point. We’ll be interested in seeing how the profiles handle newer apps on the wall tab if they allow narrow only or if wide will still be there (probably, but you never know).
Application tabs however are going to be the first thing abused by spammers. Guaranteed.
Regarding “Also, I’m assuming the tabs are loaded with Javascript, so the pages aren’t refreshing every time a user clicks to a different area of the profile…”
If Facebook’s current use of AJAX is any indication of continued trends for the website we can safely assume that each time a person clicks a tab that a check at the server is performed to see if any new content has been updated for that tab. If there is new content for that tab then Facebook can stream back the HTML for that tab and update it a la appearing client side with no post-backs and page refreshes.
Facebook is infinitely cleaner than MySpace, however I am really beginning to hate all the requests from applications… and until now I don’t know how to avoid all those requests.
- AG
I passionately HATE this new layout!!!! It is SO ugly!!!!!!!