Why all the “new facebook” hate?
September 11, 2008
Those of you who use Facebook have undoubtedly noticed some changes in the site layout lately. It seems like quite a few people have gotten together to voice their hatred of the new layout. A couple of groups have over a million members, and some people are threatening to migrate to Myspace if they don’t change it back. The only problem with their argument is that they don’t have one. I’m going to go out on a limb and say, the new Facebook is considerably better and the changes make a whole lot of sense. Some reasons why:
Unlike when Mini-Feed first appeared, the changes aren’t in any way harmful to user’s privacy or usability. Some items are placed in slightly different areas and you might have to make one extra click to see what your friend’s favorite TV show is. Merging the mini-feed and the wall together is a fantastic idea, especially since you can now view both separate. The customization potentials are huge now with the tabs. The design is altogether cleaner, better organized, and much more user-friendly. They’ve even added Applications to the chat bar at the bottom of the page to make it even more accessible, which was the only legitimate complaint against the new that I heard. In addition, the changes solve all the complaints people had that the Applications cluttering up the screen and having to scroll down forever. This is solid site design. See you guys, it’s not that bad! (Follow the jump for further explanation on why new facebook is better.)
So why are people coming out in droves to complain. Well, I guess tradition for one. Everytime there’s been a significant Facebook change, people have protested and eventually they accepted it and learned to like it. Also a lot of Facebook users are just whiny and/or lazy and don’t want to learn new things, even if it’s better (that’s why they’ve kept “old facebook” as an option, for the gradual switch). And you got the whole Diffusion of Innovations thing that says that about 16% of people will be early adopters of technology, and about half will only adopt a new technology when it’s already accepted by a majority. In that latter half are people called “laggards” who are obssessed with tradition and are extremely resistant to any change. Unfortunately for Facebook, it’s the laggards that are speaking the loudest (the 1 million users in anti-new groups make up about 1% of Facebook’s population) while the silent majority have already accepted the new, better Facebook and have gone on with their lives. Anyone else with me?
MP3 Interpol – The New
MP3 Elbow – Some Riot
MP3 Postal Service – Suddenly Everything Has Changed
I have listed below one of the groups “top twenty reasons to hate new facebook” and why they are completely wrong with their arguments. Follow the jump to see it.
REASONS TO HATE THE NEW FACEBOOK:
1- The application list was more convenient on the left bc the natural orientation to read is from left to right.
The list is now at the top of your profile, which is the most convenient place for it. Your eyes also read top to bottom.
2- Having one page for a profile makes it easier to show people what you want in whichever order you like. The new facebook put all the applications on one page. I guarantee that it will be rare that anyone looks there. While the wall/minifeed & your information have their own tabs. This makes it much longer to find things. It’s not because we’re lazy, just because it’s better when faster.
You can move your favorite applications to the first page on the left hand side. You could probably fit about 10 applications there. You can even make a tab specifically for one application.
3- “Having all my apps and stuff on the one page instead of using those tabs is quicker and more accessible like a poster – not like a book.” Monica Chanty (Australia)
Take any basic web design class and you’ll learn that TONS OF SCROLLING IS NOT GOOD. Almost every well-designed site uses tabs or links to organize its content neatly. I’m guessing Monica isn’t a web designer.
4- “It seems kind of ‘big’ or something? Like for children.” Monica Chanty (Australia)
It’s called Web 2.0. Get used to it. Learn how to use your browser’s zoom in / zoom out features if you don’t like it.
5- The Wall/Minifeed Combination makes things more confusing.
There used to be two very long lists on your profile. It took up a lot of room and was annoying. Now there’s one list which you can view as the wall, the mini-feed, or combined. Couldn’t be any simpler.
6- The left justification makes it look off and abnormal.
I really don’t even understand this one. Having good alignment makes for a clean design. Everyone knows that.
7- The fact that we can’t reorganize our immediate profiles.
The only things you can’t reorganize is the basic information and friends. Otherwise it’s completely customizable. Much more than old facebook. You can even customize which basic information shows up.
8- The fact that facebook is trying to be more like myspace. That ruins it’s originality and uniqueness. If you want a social networking site that’s like myspace, then join myspace. PERIOD. I loved facebook for it’s simplicity and design.
The worst aspect of myspace is that everything is on one page and extremely cluttered / hard on the eyes. The New Facebook is moving by leaps and bounds further away from this with the tabs. How is doing something completely different than myspace that makes it look less like mysapce, more like myspace? I must be missing something…
9- Everything seems very cluttered despite the fact they tried to make it simpler. Their plan miserably failed.
Ummm, seriously? The tabs make everything LESS cluttered. What’s more cluttered – a ton of apps and information thrown onto one screen, or similar items being grouped into separate pages?
10- For those with larger computer screens (I have a 20 inch screen), the site looks too empty on both the sides of the left justified content.
Wait, I thought you said it was too big. Now it’s too small. Pick one already.
11- “it keeps messing with the bumper sticker application. I have recieved some in the past few days and they don’t show up and I can’t find them anywhere. The new facebook eats bumper stickers!! :[” Jessica Mullinnex (Keuka)
A legitimate argument but one that I’m sure will be fixed in time by the bumper stickers developers. It does the same thing to also ”Flair” by the way.
12- Everytime an application is added while in the old version, we end up back to the new facebook. So for those new fb lovers, stop saying that we can just go back to the old one. stfu
Irrelevant, dumb argument. Next.
13- For some, every time they log in to facebook, it brings back to the new despite the fact that they keep clicking on ‘back to the old fb” button. Why are they forcing this on us. A big change like this should be polled throughout fb so they can know what all the facebook members prefer. Facebook is losing it’s common sense.
It’s called a slow rollout. It’s to slowly adjust you to the changes instead of presenting them all at once. It’s called the developers being smart.
14- The friend statuses aren’t on the home page. This makes us have to do more work for no reason.
The friends link is on the main navigation bar at the top like it always has been. Clicking it isn’t work. Are these people serious?
16- “everything takes forever to load with all those tabs..” Melanie Smith (Commack High School)
The beta might have been a bit buggy, but in my experience it’s been quite speedy.
17- “It does not support old windows 98 systems, even those with Opera browsers. If you’ve got an internet explorer browser, then you’re just plain out of luck! Guess what… there’s still plenty of us out there who are not that rich, own an old computer and like it just fine. We’re basically being kicked out of Facebook which is a shame. I too thought Facebook was different!? I’m willing to bet that the change has a whole lot more to do with accomodating advertisers and how to get even more of them on here!” Diane Courchesne (Halifax, NS)
The population of people still on Windows 98 is less than 1% of PC Users. Obviously Facebook is going to cater to the people in the more than 99% category. Even Microsoft stopped supporting ‘98 a long time ago. Why can’t Facebook?
18- We can’t reorganize groups.
Couldn’t in old facebook either, unless I’m missing something.
19- “This new design is very confusing in a highly disorganized manner. Individual’s with learning disabilities and organizational problems as well as dyslexia will not be able to adjust to this new style and layout. The layout does not conform to the standards set out for these disabilities and therefore creates massive problems for people in their effort to interact on a daily basis on this network.” Lauren
New facebook is much more well organized. If you have a organizational problem than new facebook should make it alot easier on you. Tabs are a very popular form of web organization because they group categories neatly together. It’s incredibly easy to learn if you give it a chance.
20- “There is a plethora of new advertisements that now appear on the new Facebook, many pertaining to sex. This is yet another way in which Facebook is becoming more like Myspace.” Phil Leguichard (Tarpon Springs, Florida)
The advertisements are the exact same, they’ve just been moved to the right side. Not anywhere close to as annoying as Myspace.
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Tags: Elbow, Facebook, Interpol, Postal Service
Posted by 
I absolutly love it!
content rss
September 11th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
People don’t like change. Never have, never will. I personally don’t care about the new facebook, it will just take some getting used to. The people in those groups have to understand that facebook isn’t the innocent, college-only, ad-free utopia it once was. Zuckerberg realized that he could make some serious dough by opening it up to the public (and advertisers) and he ran with it.
As Method Man once said, “Cash Rules Everything Around Me”
September 11th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
what the hell is facebook?
September 11th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Honestly, there are a few annoying things about it, but theres one thing about it I really like. By making a separate page for most applications, I no longer have to deal with people who have 20 applications on top of their wall, making me scroll all the way down. Because these application whores have to go to more trouble to use them and add them, a lot of the application use has died down. I like this a lot, because there seemed to be some people who forgot that Facebook was a NETWORKING site, not a play stupid flash game and spam your friends with invites site.
September 11th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
See, here’s my thing. I like change. I willingly forced myself over to the new Facebook in July because I was curious. But it looks shitty, IMO. Everything looks more cluttered. You might think personally that tabs make it looks more clear but for people who don’t have a million apps and whose friends didn’t either, nothing can really be more clear than straight up and down.
Mainly though, I have two complaints.
A. The info on the side bar under the picture is also the first thing you see on the info tab. That’s redundant. For that matter, why is the contact information placed below everything else? This received prominent placement on old FB–there’s a reason. Social networking means nothing if you have to scroll miles (and with some people’s profiles…miles may not be a long enough term) just to find someones screename.
B. I’ve yet to have a day where I haven’t had to report a bug. I haven’t been able to update my status in a few days now, most of the time the new coding to make it so you don’t have to change pages between tabs (Java? CSS? *shrugs*) rarely works for me. There’s no reason I should be able to get a cup of coffee before FB loads my info tab. I really think if you’re going to make such a drastic change to a site…then you need to make sure it works pretty darn well before unleashing it–even in Beta. Most of the people I know actually like the new FB better–they just can’t use it because of the kinks.
September 11th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Tania, you make some interesting points.
The info bar on the front page and on the info page are different though in that you can choose what information displays on the front page. I think you brought up something interesting in why the contact information is below personal information now. Doesn’t make too much sense. Either way to me it’s a pretty minor complaint.
I personally haven’t experienced any bugs so I can’t comment on your second point. I can see how that would be annoying though. Thanks for posting!
September 11th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Hey just got a question, any idea why people aren’t able to view the new facebook in Internet Explorer? i’ve seen alot of complaints and i even tried it on IE just to see if it would work and it worked perfectly…I guess they’re using an older version of IE but then again thats just lazyness unless they are using 98 or ME and cannot update…
September 11th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Face book stinks you cant see any profiles unless youre their friend.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Not true “me”, you can see their profiles unless they set it to friend only, which most people seem to.
Supernerd, only people with Windows 98 are before are not supported by the new facebook as far as I know.
September 11th, 2008 at 8:48 pm
At the risk of sounding absolutely noob-ish, how do you put the songs on your site? Is it free?
September 11th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Heck, all I care about is talking to people and going to my boxes to see taylor’s blog.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Advertisers don’t appreciate when they are shuffled from the more favourable positioning on the left to the advertising blind right hand side of the page. When push comes to shove it has nothing to do with usability and all to do with the bottom of line. Facebook will probably have to change something to keep their (presumable) cash cow happy (yes – on my blog everything is on the right which is an advertiser no-no but ad revenue was never good for me no matter where I had ads placed; Facebook probably has a little more readership than I do
)
I’m mixed on the new changes. My initial impression was WTF but I will probably ‘warm’ to it with time.
DJF
September 12th, 2008 at 3:28 am
I love the new Facebook, all the additional comment areas, away with the viral app clutter on pages, and I really don’t understand why everybody’s whining about something that improves real communication and helps to stop all the annoying application clutter. I have a pro New Facebook group and am the only member. FB has made some changes, most of them for the better, starting with growing up and beyond just college to include the rest of humanity. Those who only want a schoolnet should go back to ConnectU.
September 12th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Declan, when your ads are being seen by 100 million users, I don’t think you have too much room to complain about what side your ad is on.
Jenn, I have some server space that I host the blog/MP3s on.
September 12th, 2008 at 11:12 am
I totally agree with you, I much prefer the new layout. It can’t be the same forever, otherwise facebook would just end up like myspace.
September 12th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
It’s very simple. The new site design is too wide, so you can’t see the whole page unless you maximize the browser or scroll sideways. Not only that, but most of the space is EMPTY WHITE SPACE.
September 12th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
You assume that everyone wants “tons of apps” on their page and this will make it cluttered. I had a clean profile with a few apps that I had displayed and everything else was in the icons list. Short clean and simple all in one page. I could choose what people saw when they visited my profile. Now everyone is forced to view my mini-feed, which is useless BS info. Everything I want people to see on my profile is now an extra click away. If the new layout is so good, why can’t we set defaults for what people see? Default to the apps page, or set a filter for people to only see other people’s posts on my wall?
September 12th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Dan, the mini-feed is completely customizable. You can choose exactly what you want to show up there.
As for whether you see the wall, the mini-feed, or combined, that’s up to the individual user, as it should be. Some people like the mini-feed believe it or not. Just because you don’t like it shouldn’t mean that no one else can see it.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
while i basically agree with you, the horrible orange colour scheme and cluttered sidebars on this site make me question whether you’re really qualified to talk about web design.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:29 pm
Ouch man, that hurts. I can see how you don’t like orange, as it’s a personal taste thing (I think orange and blue contrast nicely), but other than the ads, which basically look the same on every blog, how is the side bar cluttered?
September 14th, 2008 at 7:41 am
All I really care about is getting some life back into the Music For Ants facebook group.
September 14th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Just a note to the author…
I have dyslexia and I have NO problems with the new facebook, its actually caused me to start using facebook, its AMAZINGLY better and alot less of a cluster fuck of everything on one screen. I hated the old facebook, it was so hard to find anything at all.
Being a user of high-end applications I suppose im more used to things being organized. This is much better..
September 15th, 2008 at 8:35 am
You can NEVER get more organised and logical than all of ones details on a single page. There were easy fixes that could be made to the old layout that would instantly eradicate issues. To me, Facebook was the cleanest and most user friendly social networking site available and I worked hard to gather friends to it. I’m now utterly bewildered and angered that such a large number of people were ignored in the shift. I will be working hard to move my friends to another social networking site should Zuckerberg continue to ignore myself and others like me.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Clicking on the separate wall and mini-feed options do not make them completely separate. Whereas in the old Facebook, tagged photos will pop up on the mini-feed, in the new Facebook tagged photos of you now appear on the same page as wall posts from other people. There is no option for me *just* to see my wall posts.
I liked the old facebook because there was a separate distinction between sections. One section for mini-feed. One section for info. One section for wall posts etc. etc. And what more, all on the same page. No clicking around to sort through wall posts, photos, comments etc. etc. Everything was clear, distinct and separate. Everything was on one page, and that in essence was user-friendly. Sure scrolling is horrible and un-user friendly. But compared to a horde of tabs and buttons for people to click around on? The people who hate the new facebook have been scrolling all this while and are used to it.
It’ll get some using to, definitely. After all, a lot of social networking websites (myspace, friendster, orkut) always had long, scrolly pages for users to scroll. For FB to condense it all of a sudden, it is a radical change. A change they are hoping for to fly. Maybe not, maybe so. But I really think they shouldn’t have made such a drastic change.
September 15th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Taylor, I agree completely with this blog! I can’t get my head around those people that think having everything on a single page is more organised.
I spent too much of my time the previous day in one of the large groups explaining why the new layout is better. My points are very similar to what Taylor made. For those of you who are interested:
http://www.new.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=27233634858&topic=6486
I’m “Tom Cowell” in the thread, enjoy
September 15th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
To Jeremy and others trying to get their old wall back. It’s right here – http://www.new.facebook.com/wall.php
September 15th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Here’s the thing I have a problem with…since so many people hate the new facebook (myself included) why not simply let people pick which way they would like it? They’ve been doing it for the last few months and that keeps everyone happy. The big thing I don’t like about the new facebook is it feels like I need to sift through tons of tabs and filters every time I go to someone’s profile just to see what I want. Instead of looking at their wall I have to go and select a preference that filters out their mini-feed posts so I can see all the wall posts. I always found it enjoyable when I’d be just looking at a friend’s profile and notice a new application or bumber sticker or w/e without even intending to find one. I don’t know about you guys but I don’t feel like going through all my friends various tabs for no particular reason just hoping I’ll find something interesting. I use facebook as an easy-going way to just check out what my friends are up to. I don’t want to have to take so much time going through tabs and such to see what would take me 30 secs to look up with the old facebook.
September 15th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I absolutley hate it – it took me 3 years to get it looking just how it wanted, i had messages on my wall going way back to when i first joined….you have messed it all up and i won’t be using it anymore. buy
September 16th, 2008 at 5:34 am
I love the blue in between the orange for the different posts now. That is what it was missing!
September 16th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
Facebook sucks now. When something gets good, they change it. Huge mistake. Have been on it once since it changed. Now back to emailing. One page makes more sense. Too many tabs, too much clicking around. People wanna see everything all on one page.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Actually, no. When there is enough content, it should be put on multiple pages. If you were giving a presentation would you cram everything on one slide or would you group similar information on multiple slides?
Besides, clicking through three tabs is not any harder than scrolling down. It just makes everything look cleaner, better organized. It increases usability and makes for strong web design. Devin makes a good point about apps, but you should note that you can still put some apps on the front page to make it easier for users to stumble on.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I hate new facebook. I didn’t bother to read your reasons why new fb is superior. I don’t mind change, I hate the new fb though.
September 18th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
I like the new facebook. It seems neater and smaller and more put together than the old. But I don’t spend a lot of time there; I can see how people would be annoyed if they got it “just how they wanted” and then it all went and changed.
February 22nd, 2009 at 6:13 am
i whats your name