Over the last few days, Facebook has apparently been rolling out some UI changes to a small number of users, moving many of the navigation elements that currently rest at the bottom of the screen back to the left sidebar. The changes are subtle enough that they probably won’t spark yet another user rebellion against Facebook — aside from the people who will hate it automatically — but they’re very significant.
The changes in the screenshot above are nearly identical to the shots that were presented at Facebook’s developer garage a month ago. But there are some key differences. First, search now has much more prominent placement, appearing just above (and almost as an extension of) your News Feed. Previously the search box was positioned in the far upper right of the screen. The search box itself appears to have grown by around 50%, as you can see in the comparison shot below.
There are a few other changes from the design we saw in October. The top navbar has been tweaked, especially in the upper left where there are now icons for your invitations, inbox, and notifications. Again, search is going to get a boost from these changes — each of these icons will be tagged with a bright red badge whenever you have a new update, immediately drawing your eye to that part of the screen when you log in. And, surprise, search is right next to them. It’s also worth noting that some of these changes (particularly the use of icons in the main navigation bar) were first explored in Facebook Lite.
So why the new emphasis on search? Facebook search has long been a rough patch for the site. For a very, very long time, it was just plain bad. Facebook does a great job using algorithms behind the scenes to help surface people you may know at the top of your search results, but actually navigating those results was a pain. Facebook rolled out a much improved version of search in August, but I suspect few people have really explored the new search features, given their poor experiences in the past. And that needs to change: Facebook needs to get people to start using search more if it wants to leverage its Everyone updates as a viable alternative to Twitter’s realtime search.
Again, these changes are part of a bucket test, so don’t be surprised if you don’t see them. It’s also possible that Facebook is only testing this design — the one it eventually rolls out to everybody could look different.
For more shots, check out this blog post (it’s in French, but the screenshots are easy to access).
Thanks to Matthew Carrozo for the tip.
I’m sorry, but enough redesigns. I know that for the ‘tech crowd’ its easy to readjust – but it seems to me that just as I’m getting used to a new layout, another one is introduced.
Its getting a little tiresome now :/
Ditto!
Yet again I await the inevitable flood of people joining “I WANT THE OLD FACEBOOK” groups.
That will take about five, maybe ten minutes top.
Thanks for the credit, Jason! Happy to be of service.
Facebook has a big challenge ahead before their eventual IPO. Google still scoops up the big online ad money, and Facebook wants a piece of that action.
To justify the huge current valuation they need to better monetize the traffic, but that’ll mean making changes that are not offensive to most users.
IPO? Dream on.
Whine…..cry…spit…spat…….
Redesigns are a natural part of the process. Get over it!
Facebook has some issues that continually need fixing and working on GUI design is part of the process.
To me this is not even news. Ho…Hum snore zzzzzzzzzZZZ.
Facebook lacks focus. There is nothing wrong with redesigns, but these redesigns should be moving in a direction, some sort of goal. Basing your redesigns off of “oh, we should do something like Twitter” and then “oh, we should do something like Google” is not a viable strategy.
As an app developer I notice this ten-fold. There seems to be no direction in the API, and developer initiatives are started with huge fanfare and then quickly abandoned (e.g. verified apps program). All the while the stability of the platform is highly questionable.
Facebook needs a Steve Jobs personality at its core. Somebody to take all the ideas generated by the various people at Facebook and say: “No, screw that idea. It’s good, but we need to focus.”
oh, they have focus. i’m guessing they want some search-ad money, possibly due to the river of scamville possibly drying up. too bad search is probably the least useful feature for users they could spend resources on.
EH: I would say wanting search-ad money is a knee-jerk reaction, not focus. Focus would mean you have a clear road map of where you are trying to go, and your implementation will communicate this plan to your users, investors, and everybody else.
When Canon released its newest 7D, the message was clear: “we are serious about video.” When Apple release its newest mouse, the message was “gestures are it.” When Facebook releases a redesign, the message is “wait, what?”
Well, wouldn’t you say that this redesign constitutes FB making a statement about being serious about search?
they shouldn’t be redesigning. try going to a friend’s friend list and searching in the pop-up window with the friend list. absolutely broken on the back end, it simply does not work
I myself have used the Facebook Search a lot to search for groups, pages and applications so moving the box from the top-right corner to the middle is a huge plus for me.
I actually like it. And this is the IT world, changes happen every day. and honestly its pretty much like the old design so not to hard to adjust to.
Another for this year but I think finally they’ve got it back to something that I would actually like to use. This whole live feed/news feed or whatever you want to call it is just slightly stupid if you ask me.
they need a homepage redesign. the question is can fadbook be a universal search engine destination. my guess is no. that would ruin all the fun and novelty fadbook has become. its a play house. a social romper room. a separate destination channel is required to harness serious b2b, b2c content discovery. remember when they said to never hire a friend in your own business because it will likely lead to a broken relationship. same can be said to never go to a friend site to find business. fadbook is a goof off site and its hard to see that changing anytime soon. being everything to everyone is a hard for a company that has built its foundation on mardi beads, mobgames, pigsville pets and drinks on me. will fadbook ever mature?
way to get your point across ad nauseum. facebook is here to stay as a source of personal identity on the internet
Facebook has been lousy with search so far. It has to treat each update as that unit that we should be able to search. It has to be more than about looking up people.
you know what they say if it works screw with it
Hey Jason, i heard they are going to increase their font size by 0.2 pixels…. can’t wait for the story Jason..
Facebook Connect users… LOL… the web’s had enough of em’ dude…
this guy think he is witty or something
It`s not that bad at all
I know some people simply hate change, but the last big changeup was not for the better. They basically wanted to do what Twitter was doing rather than defining their own brand and strengths. I still prefer the old Facebook to the current one, but unlike the last big crop of changes, these actually make sense, and strengthen Facebook’s existing features rather than completely changing them.
If they want to actually make money they should improve their ad targeting. I can run a PPC campaign on Google and get 5% click-thru; an equally optimized campaign on Facebook would get 1% whether shown only to the primary demographic or everybody and their grandmother. That just doesn’t make any sense. Why are CTRs the same percentage for both highly targeted niche markets and the general population? I’ve heard the same thing from a few other marketers. I haven’t used it in quite a while though. Maybe it’s fixed and I’m ranting for nothing.
If they’re emphasizing search then I sincerely hope that when this launches they’ll have fixed the issues with their search not working in any way whatsoever with events.
Try it yourself. Find an event, copy the entire title of the event, and search for it. You won’t get any hits.
looks the same to me.
The agile beast flexes it’s muscles again. Nice simple design changes. I’m sure there will be a vocal yet inactive revolt. Who cares?
hi i have been trying to get in to my facebook it wont let me get in to my inbox why
thank you
I AUTOMATICALLY HATE IT!!11one
I’m usually a fan of Facebook redesigns, but this one seems too congested to me. It takes away space from the news feed area by adding in the app list sidebar.
It’s basically a Facebook Lite with apps, and as good as that may sound, the implementation of it isn’t.
If you have eyes to see Facebook’s direction, it’s plain for us all. Who did Zuckerberg spend $50 million to acquire the vision and talents of (if not, thank goodness, quite their *undivided* attention)?
What features would the Facebook team have been interested in, that those guys have already mastered? Surely not Gmail and Google Maps – though FB Mail could use some help from the maestro – and if the iPhone app wants to be location aware, I won’t object.
But you know as well as I that the sandbox for the Facebook of tomorrow has about a million alpha testers – many thousands of us very devoted indeed – at a little site known as FriendFeed.
For all those saying I cant see anything new in the new redesign I have this: http://jeayese.com/blog/?p=975 – as you can see I have marked what has been changed/ Added
I just wish we could remove the “X is now friends with Y” from the live feed. What’s the point in that?
it sure does look like the same as the Youtbube search box(positioning),facebook…mid-internet crisis.
im not a big fan of the live feed, friend requests
It’s really more of a realignment than a redesign. It’s making what they already have more cohesive and consistent while pushing a new focus. I think that’s great.
To be honest, whether you’re “savvy” or not, it’s really not that big of a deal. If you want to waste your time having a period over facebook redesigns, then that’s your parogative, but I’m for software that attempts to continually improve over time.
There’s always the annual “I hate the new facebook” apps, groups and polls.
i think its more then a search and inhouse search affiliated with google to power
hmmmm ….. I am sure taking the search box away from the right side and showing it more in the middle area is a good idea. Following the industry standard will definitely boost search traffic
it’s not blowing my skirt up! i think they should go back to the original.