Last night it appears that Facebook decided to switch the way that guest lists are now viewed for individual events. Previously, you would have to click through individual pages to see who was attending an event. Frequently, deciding whether or not to attend an event is based on who will be in attendance. That’s why the guest list is one of the most visited sections of any event.
The only problem with the previous interface was that users had to click through multiple pages to view all of the guests that would be in attendance. While it generated more pageviews for Facebook, it made deciding whether or not to attend an event a much more time consuming process. From the advertising perspective I wonder why Facebook would decide to reduce pageviews from this specific area.
One reason that Facebook may have decided to reduce guest list replies to a single window was that click through rates were extremely low on these pages to begin with. Alternatively, the theory may be that improving the overall user experience in general, will lead to a general increase in long-term pageviews.
Ultimately I won’t know why they decided to make the switch but it does appear that it generates a better experience overall. Facebook continues to make subtle changes in their interface which should hopefully increase user engagement. While Facebook continue to perfect their user interface though, it appears as though this is detracting from the time spent on increasing revenue.
For example, Facebook could be investing more heavily in developing improved advertising metrics for tracking conversions of ads into new fans. Right now it’s impossible to determine how an individual fan was lead to a public profile. In the near future I would expect to upgrade their tracking system but for businesses that would like to take advantage of the advertising opportunities available on Facebook, it makes it challenging to operate when there are few ways to track where fans are coming from.
Regardless of the lack of advanced conversion metrics on public profiles, there are still plenty of ways for businesses to promote themselves on the site and that can’t continue if the users have a poor experience. In the end it’s a difficult balance between retaining users and developing more advanced tools for businesses. Do you like the upgrade to the event guest list? Do you think it makes events easier to use?
I wonder if this is in response to the event being at the bottom now?
Comment by Mike — March 27, 2009 @ 5:57 am
Much better!
Comment by Facebook User — March 27, 2009 @ 5:59 am
Maybe this has something to do with the events being at the very bottom now?
Comment by Facebook User — March 27, 2009 @ 6:06 am
I do really like the new interface and think it's much better than the previous model with multiple pages. Although it would be nice to have a search box instead of having to browse through the list, because often you want to see if a specific person is attending.
Comment by Chad Estes — March 27, 2009 @ 6:24 am
I like this except for one thing. The sorting has changed. Previously, it sorted event guests like it sorts all searches, according to social proximity. Now guests seem to randomly sorted. I don't like it. I hope that changes soon.
The other thing I don't like is that events are now listed under "Highlights" on the homepage. The only thing that should be under "Highlights" should be the "Connect with Friends" section.
Comment by Dan Jones — March 27, 2009 @ 7:02 am
I recognize that guest list, too bad you never showed up!
Comment by Eddie Frederick — March 27, 2009 @ 8:29 am
What an attractive group of people. I bet that was a cool party.
Comment by Dan Birdwhistell — March 27, 2009 @ 8:43 am
"The theory may be that improving the overall user experience in general, will lead to a general increase in long-term pageviews."
I'm pretty sure that's facebook motivation for most of the changes on the site. (To those who say these redesigns don't improve user experience, I disagree with you, as do the statistics, though we don't have any confirmation on the new design yet.)
Speaking of which, I don't the the events will stay below the highlights. It's a stupid place for them to be, and as such, will get fixed.
Comment by Eric Godfrey — March 27, 2009 @ 3:47 pm
They also mucked with how you see members of Groups (I'm just seeing it for the first time this evening). And now I can no longer look at the list of group members and see who the most recent new members are. AAArrgh!!! I run a group for my high-school class, and like to check to see who's joined, and now I'll just have to try to remember whether someone's new or not?? Give me a break.
Of course, if I had *friend and group updates in my news feed anymore*, this wouldn't be as much of an issue.
I'm trying to be patient with these changes, but I'm getting more aggravated, not less. For about six months (between the two previous redesigns), FB was so much fun, and now it just irks me.
Comment by JD — March 27, 2009 @ 4:32 pm
This update is horrible. You can no longer edit the guest list (even though the link is still called "edit guest list."
It makes managing a guest list a nightmare. I hope they fix this soon.
Comment by Bruce Namerow — March 28, 2009 @ 9:51 am
How am I supposed to download my guestlist for my party???
You used to be able to copy and paste the names..Not any more! Nearly 1000 people on my list! Thanks facebook!
Comment by Peter Borg — April 10, 2009 @ 7:04 pm
Hmmm… why cant you copy and paste the list? what happens for you? Yes, its a little more complex but it still works just fine. We do it all the time to merge the list with other lists we have for events… the issues that come up are:
1. depending on the browser, you may see EVERYONE when you copy and paste and not just the ATTENDING or whatever you had selected.
2. the actual word ATTENDING or MAYBE or whatever will appear in front of the name
3. The names are listed backwards, Last Name, First Name which is a pain if you are merging lists and want consistency…
All of these things are easily remedied with some creative Excel-ing…
Comment by Shiggles — May 20, 2009 @ 10:42 am
Hasn’t anyone else noticed how DIFFICULT it is to see if YOUR friends are attending a large event?
Concerts or any event YOU didn’t start means you have to scroll through sometimes HUNDREDS of people to see if the 5 people you want to see will be at an event. It’s driving me NUTS!
Facebook: Please sort guestlists so our friends are at the top of the “attending” etc lists again!!!!!!!
Comment by Alexis May Tanner — October 7, 2009 @ 4:20 pm
I second the sort friends request. Issue is super frustrating.
Comment by TJ — December 30, 2009 @ 9:03 pm
But you dont have the posibility to search the guestlist in case you want to block a person from any of your events…… Major error in the new look
Comment by Tommy — October 15, 2010 @ 6:03 am
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