Facebook has always been changing, introducing new features, new profile pages and more to improve the user experience. In the past week in particular, Facebook has rolled out a series of changes that have affected business users in particular. The first being the new Facebook Page format, and the second being the clean out of FBML tabs by March 2011.
Now if you are not a developer and have been using Facebook as a brand or business, you can understand how I feel about FBML tabs. I personally love them, although they are clunky for advanced development work, they are incredibly useful for the intermediate user to create a beautiful welcome page for any Facebook Page. Never fear though, iFrames are replacing the FBML tabs from March onwards and you have until then to transfer your existing material into the new format. If you would like a detailed explanation of the differences between the two platforms please refer to this article.
Another feature that affected all users is the move to the new photo viewing format. When you click on a photo, instead of flipping through them within the current window, a new zoomed in pop up window that looks like a mock slideshow appears.
All the functionality has been kept and ad’s have conveniently been placed. This is quite clever as the ads now appear even more obvious and users will be more likely to view them in this particular window as there is usually one ad placed. Question is will Facebook be charging a premium for that spot in the future?
Now I react the same way as the majority of Facebook users – I get annoyed when they change things on me. Like all creatures of habit I’m happy with the way Facebook is/was and because I visit the site so frequently, I get frustrated when that button I have always clicked in that place has been moved; or it looks different; and especially when I have to redesign/development Facebook pages, because they said so. Don’t get me wrong, Facebook always makes sure they give everyone advanced warning and phase it in slowly but you still have a feeling of hostility when the changes arrive. And you know you are not alone when you start seeing these status updates in your news feeds:
“hates the new photo viewing thing on fb. Yet another fail!”
Oatmeal illustrates it perfect with the first section of his comic . So tell me how do you feel about Facebook changes?
