Last week, Facebook conducted the F8 conference to announce a slew of changes for the users of the social networking site. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook termed the Facebook changes as “all your stories, all your apps and a new way to express who you are”.
According to him the changes will make a lot more sense since now you can also read the book rather than just liking it. Let’s see what the changes are up to.
Facebook Timeline
This is being termed as the biggest of the Facebook changes. The Facebook timeline will convert the personal profiles into a timeline of events. Thus whatever you do will appear as a timeline.
You may use the timeline to actually see what you posted in a particular month of the year by directly clicking on the month present at the top right side of your profile page.
Though it is being rolled out slowly, there is a mixed reaction with many hailing this as the greatest Facebook changes ever, while other dumping the same as more complex for the user. Only time will prove whether it is a hit or a flop!
The Ticker
Another of the major changes announced by Facebook is the Ticker. It will be found on the upper right hand side of the Facebook Home page. It is a list of all the activities going on in your friends circle.
The list is updated on the top and it subsequently scrolls down. This is a noble idea but has received flak from most of the users. For example, a friend of yours comments on a photo or status of his friend then it is updated in the list.
Most users feel that they won’t need that update since the person is not on their friend list and is the reason for the ‘thumbs down’. If any friend on the list likes a page the Ticker gets updated. Group updates appear on the list.
Many users find it irritating to see the top right hand sidebar getting updated every few seconds!
Subscribe Button
How about logging in to your account and read the update from your best buddy? This is one change that received a ‘thumbs up’. You can now wish what to appear at the top of your page.
You wished to hear directly from people who interested you, but since you didn’t know them personally, you could not take a look at their posts. Facebook has made this very thing possible.
You don’t know a person, so sending him a friend request wouldn’t help. But don’t worry! You can subscribe for their posts and have the same appear right in your home page. Thus you get to see what you choose to see.
If you would like to share your public updates with more than just friends, you can get a Subscribe button to your profile. You can enable this optional feature by going to the Subscriptions Page.
Improved Friend Lists
Improved friend lists are one feature that many will agree with. Whenever you hover over the Friend button on a user’s profile, you have the option to set him/her as ‘Close Friend’ or just an ‘Acquaintance’.
The former will have their subscription changed to ‘All Posts’ while the later will have ‘Only Important’. But this change didn’t please some users who expect more from Facebook from the functional point of view.
Smart lists will take into account the common information from you and your friend’s accounts and ensure that lists are created and maintained up-to-date.
‘Profile’ Disappears
The old right-hand corner previously had ‘Home’, ‘Profile’ and ‘Account’. The ‘Profile’ disappears now and is replaced by a small thumbnail and name of the user logged in. Also the ‘Account’ option is replaced by a down arrow to suit your needs.
Other Changes In Facebook
Other changes that you may not notice is that Facebook will not choke your inbox with every update and rather go for important ones. The pictures on your home page will now appear larger. Birthday wishes can be made without changing to the birthday guy’s profile.
These Facebook changes may at the very outset seem a bit annoying, but with time you will surely get comfortable with them and love them as you have loved Facebook from the very first day!
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I am not a fan of the changes at this point, but probably have to just get used to them. I will be trying to create a fan page shortly so I hope it is not too difficult. Thanks so much for the info on the changes. Sally
Sally, that’s true. Not many have really bothered to look at the changes even. Good luck with your page creation
I like the updates they made to the friends list. I always wondered how people who have thousands of “friends” can keep up with what’s going on with their real friends. Separating close friends from acquaintances makes perfect sense.
Couldn’t agree more Lionel! More friends = more noise in this case.
You know.. The Facebook, its latest interface really confused me at the first time i saw it. But now as i’m getting accustomed to it, i don’t really care anymore. LOL!
It happens Andrew. Some get used to it some don’t - that’s what causes the likes and dislikes!
I like the Facebook timeline and the improved friend lists. The other changes are not that bad or ugly for me. But the good news is that if you don’t like the Facebook changes and would rather resort to the old Facebook, there’s actually a way to do it.
How long would they keep the old interface (or) will they allow us to switch to the old interface. I don’t think for long!
I think that it was a lot of the changes and ‘outcry’ were down to the normal Facebook marketing team getting the word out, after all there is no such thing as bad publicity!
Personally I did find the changes a bit much to start with but now it’s like there was never a previous version.
Paul, well said. It’s all a matter of time. Once we get used to it we forget the old appearance (is it just with Facebook? I bet!)
I can’t say if I like any of these changes Jane. I have to be honest because I am not a FaceBook fan and if you ask me why, I don’t really know. I think that one of the reasons is that I always found it to be complex to use and did not really find the time to sit on it. The timeline as you mentioned did have some positive and negative reactions and over time, I might just give FB a bit more of my time to see how all these works out. Thanks for the update
Fran, I’m honestly not a FB fan as well. I use it for marketing my blog and get some nice and genuine connections along the way. Apart form that I learn stuff mostly to share, not for my personal use lol.
The Facebook changes are great. Facebook is trying to help out there users. A change is a good thing because you can tell they want to help out there visitors and have a user friendly website. Plus they are just keeping up with the new technology every year. I’m happy with the changes
Joseph, that’s good to hear that you like the changes. It’s true that FB is keeping up with the changes.
I guess facebook has done great changes! but i really don’t like the ticker. there is one change you didn’t include into your list which is the news feed change and this change what i liked most
I know the cnahges are probably for my good, but man, I hate it when the interface kleeps on changing. And everytime it DOES, it takes me days to find where I put half my Facebook stuff.
IMO this all a response the Google plus hitting the streets and providing a different view point. They didn’t seem so change happy before this.
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Surprisingly, in the beginning, the changes have drew a lot of criticism but after a while, people start to like it. It’s happens all the time
Facebook Timeline is very good feature, I like this new feature. Facebook has done great changes!
I’ve noticed some changes in Facebook lately, but I don’t really bother taking everything seriously. Though it can be irritating to find some unfamiliar features, I must say that many people will still continue to use it no matter what. But to be honest, what I don’t like about FB is the way they handle photos. I guess the format is pretty cool, but sometimes it can’t be appropriate to other pictures because its latest pic feature can make some images appear too big in FB wall. We could expect more changes in FB for sure in the future.
Now you can style your profle using covers therea are Lot of Covers app and website providing stylish cover, but there are also few fb apps that allow user to create cover from your friend profile picture.Nice Post
jason says
Obviously these are fb bots. Yeah putting my profile in a blender and throwing it into a cheesy colloge. Great plan. Its a ‘profile’ not a ‘timeline’. This is just awful marketing. Whats next, make a square wheel? But its a good thing! Sheep bahahaha
Adoel says
I was use facebook for martketing since last year. I getting some money from facebook. I hope facebook stay upping forever with some changes that have do.
That’s great! You can subscribe for their posts and have the same appear right in your home page.
I think the changes on Facebook are for better. I love the new “albums” feature. I can organize my photos way better than before.
I love Facebook, however I hate those new updates that kept on changing. We need to catch up with the new stuffs. And there are many unnecessary applications on Facebook that’s just really annoying.
Hi Jane
I think a big problem is people don’t like change when they are using something they like. Doesn’t matter what ever it is. Facebook will get flack every time they change something whether for better or not. Then when they change what they have changed they will still get flack and on it goes human nature I am afraid.
Great info though thanks lee