Facebook Leaves More Questions Than Answers
Posted by Nick O'Neill on May 21st, 2008 3:51 PMEarlier today, Facebook held an open house event for the press to discuss the upcoming profile changes and what people can expect. The purpose of the event is clear: begin getting people used to the concept that there will be significant changes to user profiles and the site as a whole and that they should be prepared. The most concerned party through all of this has been developers. They want to know if their virality will be dented further and how big of changes they are going to need to make.
Unfortunately the profile wasn’t finalized in time for today. While screenshots were provided to the media, there was no guarantee that the profiles would remain the same. As I wrote last night, the new navigation appears to be highly simplified. In the coming days, developers will be able to begin testing their applications under the new profile design. I have a feeling that many developers will be disappointed while a few will be ecstatic thanks to the new opportunity provided by application tabs.
The multiple ways that applications can be displayed now makes displaying content within profiles a more complex process. While it was initially extremely easy to integrate applications into profiles, it is clear that the times are changing. Facebook is clearly dedicated to making sure that developers know what changes will be taking place but that still doesn’t hide the fact that many developers are clearly anxious.
Browse through the Facebook developer forums and you can read about many of the developers concerns. The new designs are expected to go live in the next “few weeks” and a testing environment will be set up for developers will be set up later this week or next. What do you think of the changing designs? Will they help you stay glued to Facebook?
(4.64 out of 5)
(4.22 out of 5)
May 21st, 2008 at 4:16 pm
facebook has a clutter problems…i would focus the engineering and product group on developing a relevance algorithm to filter apps for users.. installing them is easy creating clutter is easy but both contribute to irrelevance.
facebook needs to be relevant to users.. they need to be think like a search vendor..user experience and discovery = utilty; utility = revenue
there it is facebook - get to work
May 21st, 2008 at 5:16 pm
facebook has a clutter problems…i would focus the engineering and product group on developing a relevance algorithm to filter apps for users.. installing them is easy creating clutter is easy but both contribute to irrelevance.
facebook needs to be relevant to users.. they need to be think like a search vendor..user experience and discovery = utilty; utility = revenue
there it is facebook - get to work
May 21st, 2008 at 7:02 pm
facebook is down!!!111 oh noes!
May 21st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
Well, Nick, since you asked…
I’ve created one application so far, Evarium (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id...), which launched last week and currently has 1226 users.
Frankly, as both a user and a developer, I wish Facebook would mostly just leave things alone—they mostly work fine for me. Failing that, I wish they’d change things more incrementally. And failing that, I wish they’d give us a coherent, detailed proposal regarding whatever they’re going to change, let us comment on it for a definite period, then give us a coherent, detailed revision, etc. I’m no fan of bureaucracy, but I’m unhappy with the vagueness of this profile revision.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
facebook is down!!!111 oh noes!
May 21st, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Well, Nick, since you asked…
I’ve created one application so far, Evarium (http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=6277707227), which launched last week and currently has 1226 users.
Frankly, as both a user and a developer, I wish Facebook would mostly just leave things alone—they mostly work fine for me. Failing that, I wish they’d change things more incrementally. And failing that, I wish they’d give us a coherent, detailed proposal regarding whatever they’re going to change, let us comment on it for a definite period, then give us a coherent, detailed revision, etc. I’m no fan of bureaucracy, but I’m unhappy with the vagueness of this profile revision.