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With its popularity reaching new markets and users around the globe, Facebook is changing it’s familiar look. Users have long complained about cluttered profiles and endless scrolling to see all the news, activities, applications, photos, and “wall” posts on friend’s pages. Now Facebook has announced changes that will eliminate crowding on user’s profiles. A recent press event was held to promote the new look, and the changes are promising.

The New York Times reported on the press event, giving Facebook devotees a brief look at the new interface. “The biggest change: user profiles on the service will evolve from a single, flat and often cluttered page into four tabbed sub-pages dubbed feed, info, photos and applications.” The tabs will encompass the major areas of activity of each user, and visitors to their profile will be able to look at the information they’re seeking without a lot of scrolling or clicking through applications. “Feed” will give a history of a user’s activity on Facebook. “Info” will contain personal and professional information, such as addresses, educational background, and top friends. “Photo” will house each user’s online albums. “Applications” will house third-party mini-programs like the popular Scrabulous word game or Superpoke.

Some third-party developers are less than thrilled with the change, as a tabbed system could cut back on the visibility and subsequent popularity of their products. Currently, a typical Facebook profile showcases each application in at least three locations, unless a user chooses to minimize them. Chamath Palihapitiya, vice president of product marketing at Facebook, told the New York Times, “This [redesign] will shift success to those applications that are deeply and meaningfully engaging. Applications that are more static in nature may not be as successful as they may have been in the current ecosystem.” Applications that users access frequently, like Superpoke, will still be popular. Those which simply sit on the page like “Sports Fan”, which showcases a user’s favorite teams, will probably lose momentum.

Facebook released screen shots of the planned changes, and the redesign looks significantly cleaner and more focused.

Many users, however, are concerned that the changes might impact their ability to navigate their profiles and applications. One user writes, “Please don’t take my side nav away”, while another laments “i hate that you can’t collapse minifeed anymore!”. Others, however, are embracing the coming changes, writing “This look great!!! Facebook needed this change ;)”.

Speculation about the reason for the changes is rampant, though most industry experts agree that Facebook may be facing a slump. A redesign is a great way to reactivate users who are scaling back their usage and attract new users as well. The site has not been able to equal their 98% growth from last year. However, despite these setbacks, Facebook has continued to dominate the social networking landscape. As they expand to other markets around the world, expect to see more positive changes from this young company.

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Haley January Eckels