Last month Facebook and Oodle relaunched the Facebook classifieds product. Over the past day or so the application has witnessed a surge in traffic as Facebook moved the application into users’ application bookmarks by default. The result was that 60,000 additional users visited the application yesterday, but so far none of those users appear to be happy.
So far hundreds of users have submitted negative reviews about the sudden visibility of the application. It appears that rather than not liking the application, the users are more angered about the apparent violation of their default bookmark settings. This promotion is also subtle in that it doesn’t have any sort of announcement in contrast to last year’s CBS Sports promotion that users and developers lashed out against.
At the end of the day Facebook can make any changes to their system which favors one application or another but users still have a right to feel violated. It evokes similar emotions to those experienced when arriving at your computer only to find your desktop and application icons completely rearranged.
What’s amazing is how passionate some of these users are about the apparent violation by Facebook. It would begin to suggest that users are actually taking note of their default settings in a way that mimics their computer operating system settings. Mess with those settings and you end up with confused and frustrated users.
I’ve reached out to Facebook for comment and will be sure to update this post when I hear back. Has the Marketplace application appeared in your application bookmarks? So far all people I’ve spoken with say that it displays in their bookmarks and in the toolbar as well. Thanks to R. Goodside for the tip via the AllFacebook.com public profile.
Update
We’ve received the following statement from Facebook: “As part of the launch of Facebook Marketplace powered by Oodle, we restored the Marketplace bookmark to users who either previously used the original application or had a bookmark to it. Users can edit what appears as a bookmark by going to their ‘Application Settings’ menu.”
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It's appeared in my bookmarks and along the pinned bookmarks in the bottom toolbar.
Why Facebook would do such a thing, I have no idea :S
Comment by Facebook User — April 1, 2009 @ 6:21 am
April fools maybe?
Comment by Facebook User — April 1, 2009 @ 6:21 am
It isnt in mine – (yet?)
Meantime somebody PLEASE just tell me how to rid my news feed of everybody's lists and quizzes and all the other stupid apps they've used (and I've blocked)- SO tired of scrolling thru all that crap. THX
Comment by R. Richard Hobbs — April 1, 2009 @ 6:48 am
Another brilliant move from FB. I must be one of the lucky ones because I don't see it. But to take it out of your bookmarks, go to Settings > Application Settings > choose "Show Bookmarked" from the dropdown > Delete.
Comment by Facebook User — April 1, 2009 @ 6:54 am
Seems like half of Facebook's problems lately is that it changes the UI so often that users can't keep up. Deleting unwanted applications from the app bar is easy enough, and they've added TWO ways to keep stray applications out of the newsfeed, but many users don't know that.
Also, making the filter controls (like "Delete" and "Hide") invisible until users mouse over them isn't doing anyone any favors. Does Facebook do ANY testing with end-users before rolling out changes?
Comment by Facebook User — April 1, 2009 @ 7:07 am
Relax people. For golly sakes, it is just a fricken website, not religion.
Comment by Steve D — April 1, 2009 @ 11:58 am
Well, I'm hoping this is just an April Fools joke, but with all of the missteps Facebook has been making as of late it probably isn't. Customer satisfaction doesn't seem to be a forte of Facebook's and this is most likely going to be followed up with another poor decision.
The site is just becoming a mess. I can't imagine what it's like in headquarters.
Comment by Mike — April 1, 2009 @ 12:26 pm
I remember being surprised when I saw this, and there was already a thread going on the developer forum. I can see why users are angry; they only get 6 bookmark spots on the footer, and developers work very hard to create great apps and convince users to bookmark them. And as Facebook wants to behave more like a "platform" or an "operating system," they have to understand that users are going to get attached to it. I think there were much better ways to approach this, rather than just another untested, impulsive idea. An official announcement at the top of the news feed would have garnered the same traffic, while not angering any users.
Comment by Montoya — April 2, 2009 @ 6:23 am
Hobbs, install Greasemonkey (firefox needed) and install the anti-quiz script
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/74... http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/45001 http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/personal.htm...
Comment by Jay Nicholas Turner — April 2, 2009 @ 6:47 am
I DONOT KNOW HOW TO ACCESS THE MARKETPLACE ANYMORE!!!! HOW DO I DO THAT?! I CAN'T SEE WHAT'S ON NOR IN THE MARKET!!!! TELL ME HOW IF YOU DON'T MIND PLEASE.
Comment by Mar Cellina — January 1, 2010 @ 11:40 am