Facebook celebrates b-day with major redesign

Posted on Feb 5, 2010 in Facebook, Social Media

Back in December, I blogged about how Facebook was planning to have a major redesign to their website and it looks as though that day is finally here. According to Facebook, they started rolling out the the new design changes to 80 million users last night. Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the lucky 80 million users (but somehow Jeff Hilimire was one of them). I got to take a look at his Facebook page, and although it will be a shock to most of the Facebook community at first, these changes will make “Facebooking” much easier.

Below are my top 3 things I like most about the new redesign:

  1. Email Message Inbox – now you can check your messages and send messages without having to leave the homepage
  2. Instant Messaging – your IM contact list will no longer be hidden in a popup menu in the bottom right corner of the page and has been moved to the left sidebar
  3. Search – larger and more prominently placed search bar

What are your thoughts on the changes? Do you think it will improve your experience on Facebook?

  • Amy

    Looking forward to seeing this rolled out. I'm sure people will complain, but it looks relatively clean from this screenshot!

  • http://www.jeffhilimire.com Jeff Hilimire

    Two days in, I really like the changes to Facebook. It just feels a little more organized and easy to get to information.

    I do wonder though if Facebook needs to start finding ways to allow people/businesses to “unorganize” their pages/profiles a little. Brands especially are going to want more customization. They're close to buying into the importance of social networks but the big hold back (other than lack of control which they don't have anyway but don't realize that yet) is the ability to invoke a brand impression to people visiting the page. They can do that on their .com website but its hard to do on a Facebook page.

    So the more Facebook moves to making a very clean, organized, non-sexy interface, they might be doing more long-term harm than good.

  • http://www.jeffhilimire.com Jeff Hilimire

    Two days in, I really like the changes to Facebook. It just feels a little more organized and easy to get to information.

    I do wonder though if Facebook needs to start finding ways to allow people/businesses to “unorganize” their pages/profiles a little. Brands especially are going to want more customization. They're close to buying into the importance of social networks but the big hold back (other than lack of control which they don't have anyway but don't realize that yet) is the ability to invoke a brand impression to people visiting the page. They can do that on their .com website but its hard to do on a Facebook page.

    So the more Facebook moves to making a very clean, organized, non-sexy interface, they might be doing more long-term harm than good.

  • http://jeffhilimire.com/2010/02/6-things-you-might-have-missed-last-week/ 6 Things You Might Have Missed Last Week

    [...] Facebook went through a pretty major redesign. [...]