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Facebook Facelift
By Jacob Eaton on Wednesday, May 21, 2008.
As Facebook started to gain popularity, many saw it as a simple, stripped-down alternative to other social networking sites. MySpace, for example, was starting to develop a bad reputation for its cluttered, sometimes confusing interface.
But the more popular Facebook becomes, the more it falls prey to the same pitfalls of its predecessors. With more people using the site and creating their own applications for it, it’s becoming more and more cluttered itself. Now, after many user complaints, Facebook is preparing for a facelift.
According to BBC News, the site plans to split the current user page into 5 separate pages, accessed by a set of tabs at the top of the screen. It will separate content by type in an attempt to make it easier to navigate. Facebook hopes the new design will alleviate user frustration with the overwhelming amount of information crowding some profile pages.
Though the company hopes to retain its near 70 million-user following through the makeover, the frustration may be indicative of a decline in Facebook’s popularity. The Arizona Republic reports that Facebook’s sales may slow as marketing efforts sputter. Reuters writes that Microsoft, following their failed attempt at purchasing Yahoo!, may begin to focus more on acquiring Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has stressed his desire for Facebook’s independence.
(Oh, by the way, you can check out Word of Mouth's very tidy, very user-friendly Facebook page here.)
(Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)
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Great post Jake. This is something I've been hearing in various channels lately as well.
There's a concept that's been floated that may apply - "Facebook as platform," meaning that Facebook will develop itself not like MySpace, which continues to gear toward linking to friends, but more like Google, as a space for more complicated applications. The theory goes that Facebook's revamp means it's maturing away from people throwing virtual sheep at their friends and toward more complex applications like Lending Club, where Facebook users can pool resources together to lend money. If that theory is right, then the simpler, SuperPoke-type applications are useful in that they help Facebook and its users learn and grow and find their potential.
Interesting article on CNet along these lines:
Navigating out of Facebook's awkward adolescence
Yeah, I've been wondering about the future of Facebook myself lately. In some ways, I think, these social networking sites can be victims of their own success. The more mainstream and popular they become, the more backlash they face. Videos are popping up on YouTube making fun of the site, not to mention the proliferation of websites that explain why "Facebook Sucks".
Brady's comment above is particularly interesting. It's something to keep our eyes on. On that note, we recently interviewed one of the guys who launched an application that turns Facebook into a high-tech blood-drive:
http://www.nhpr.org/node/15535
Yeah, "victims of their own success" is a good way to describe it. The Internet skews toward customization and personalization, so any site that's trying to be (or is perceived as trying to be) all things to all people is going to see a backlash.
For some platforms, the backlash is even coming before the buzz - there's a backlash in some circles over Twitter, which never seemed like it was geared toward mass Internet appeal, even though it hadn't really reached the heights of a Facebook or a MySpace.