Webmaster reflects on Facebook changes

By Devang Joshi
joshid@mytjnow.com

Facebook is always up to something and lately they have been making that very clear with the plethora of changes to their interface. 

Like it or not, the changes are here to stay--and there are more on the way. 

The “redesign” is part of Facebook’s new push to integrate its user’s lives with the site itself. The new push is called “Timeline” and it is the driving force behind the changes you and I have witnessed as of late. 

So what’s involved with “Timeline”? Well it all starts with the user profile, which will be getting a facelift (get it ‘facelift’ ‘Facebook’…no?) The new profile page (your ‘cover’ as it’s called on the timeline promotional page) is all new, redesigned to give you more personalization. Your profile picture is still there, but now there is a new picture that acts as a header image for your page. 

Continuing down the page, your “likes”, “friends” and other ‘facebookesque’ features like places you have checked in and other applications you have subscribed to. In terms of design, I like the new look. Although it seems a bit busy at first glance, the grid-like layout works for me.

The real interesting things come into play when we look at what Facebook has been doing in the background to make the whole timeline concept work. For Facebook, nothing is better than its users interacting with the site 24/7 (well I mean that’s already the case but work with me here). 

Essentially, Facebook would like you to view your account as your own personal photo album, a medium that tells a story and documents your life through photos, friendships and conversations. You can see how this concept comes together when we look at the tremendous amount of data that Facebook keeps on each of its members. 

In addition to photos and videos that a given individual uploads, you now also have a full history of your messages (both the “private” messages and the “instant/chat” messages are recorded). So what you have is a comprehensive overview of your life, and Facebook knows that Facebook is probably a big part of your life (and that’s not half of a lie considering the amount of times we collectively log on the site, and the amount of communication that takes place via there services).

One interesting thing that has resulted from the most recent changes have to be the combination of user outcry (apparently people love to hate everything Facebook does) and growing concerns over the amount of data that the site is keeping on its users. 

Starting with the latter, it comes as no surprise that Facebook has been collecting this staggering amount of information. Companies like Google do the exact same thing, to better help them target advertising (also known as money) to the individual user and Facebook is doing exactly the same thing. 

As far as Facebook dynamic look, well change is usually a good thing. Allow me to end on a little bit of a rant here ladies and gents, you may hate the changes but it’s not really up to you. Facebook is a privately traded company, who lets you use their site for free. 

In addition, you agreed to a neat little list of terms and services that said Facebook could change anything they wanted whenever they wanted. 

So if you don’t like it feel free to complain, just have some dignity and do it somewhere other than Facebook; I hear Twitter and Google Plus are free (please don’t crud up my beloved Google Plus).