Snippets

Following up on my previous post on Facebook's 'major redesign,' it looks like Facebook is finally rolling out the last of their remaining changes. There are obviously both some minor and major changes to both the user interface and the general layout. A few more major changes will be released in upcoming weeks. But it is not just a makeover, it is a completely new concept. Time magazine recently released an article, Did Facebook Just Change Social Networking Forever?.  Facebook is taking giant leaps in the social networking industry and there is going to be a lot of adjusting to do on our part throughout the next month. But why? Facebook is already the most popular and widely used social network available. It already is THE social network. Perhaps Facebook is simply gearing up for the highly anticipated arms war against Google+. Upon going public just last week, Google+ saw an exponential explosion in user activity with over 50 million users and a 1269% traffic increase, according to Gizmodo.com.

We have already seen the ticker. We have already seen the revamped News Feed. Reiterating from my previous post, Facebook says the goal of these recent changes is "to ultimately get you to stay on Facebook longer." The News Feed now functions as the users personal newspaper through the organization of Top Stories. The ticker keeps track of all the micro-actions such as likes, wall-to-wall conversations, comments, picture uploads, and so on. When any of these micro-actions begin receiving a lot of hits through likes and comments, it is instantly transferred to your Top Stories column on the News Feed.

See this for a short detailed summary of Facebook's major changes.
tecca / 'New Facebook Changes: What you need to know'

Below the cover photo will feature the new profile page. Facebook is scrapping the twitter-like wall that currently takes up the majority of the page with a new "scrapbook" looking feel. Photos, posts, events, friends, and videos are now much more organized across the profile page, organized in tiles (image below). The user has full flexibility in choosing what is displayed on this page. If you feel that a picture from two years ago is very important to you, you can dig it up and make sure it is permanently shown on the photos tab of the profile. You can choose to keep certain posts displayed on your profile. That way, you no longer need to click through "Older Posts" over and over to see past posts.


Facebook Timeline also introduces Apps. Now, you can integrate popular apps such as Spotify, Netflix, Nike+, and Yahoo News onto your page. Now, your friends can see what music you are listening to, what movies you have watched, how your daily workout went, and what news articles you have read.


The limits seem to be endless with Facebook's new changes, but where do we draw the line between convenient social networking and superfluous over-sharing? Facebook's new user flexibility does allow for more control as to what is visible and what is not, but these changes are indubitably changing the concept of social networking forever. Not only can we see every micro-action taking place at every moment, but we can now keep taps on every song listened to, every movie watched, every mile ran, and every article read. Facebook is becoming an open book. And once again, this is to "get you to stay on Facebook longer." Will it work?


Are these new changes convenient to you? Or are they just plain creepy? Facebook seems to have a good intent, but are they taking it too far? And should Google+ be considered a legitimate threat to Facebook's social network empire? All sorts of opinions are spreading throughout the Facebook community. Share your thoughts in the comments below.