• TechCrunch, Friday, February 3, 2012 11:33 AM

Seeing as how this is officially Facebook week, we had to mention a new photo-viewer layout being tested by the network. What makes the layout new is the way it mounts engagement buttons and comments to the right rather than beneath images. The significance of such a change, as TechCrunch’s Josh Constine explains, is that “encouraging conversation aligns with Facebook’s goal of driving connections between people, such as friends of a photo’s owner who might interact in its comment reel for the first time.”

Also, additional comments equal more notifications to other commenters, which naturally drives more return visits and time spent on the site. “I bet the test will show increased engagement, and Facebook will implement some version of side-mounted comments,” Constine writes. Furthermore, “Facebook doesn’t want you to just view comments, it wants you to start a conversation.”

Meanwhile, not lost on Constine is the resemblance between Facebook’s new viewer layout and a similar Google+ service. “Apparently [Facebook] doesn’t care,” he adds. “The fact is that this is good design, though, so it makes sense for Facebook to integrate whether or not it has appeared elsewhere.”

Read the whole story at TechCrunch »