Facebook got a makeover. The social-networking site known for helping students keep in touch is completely changing its user interface. Instead of seeing a home page with a list of links to friends'
profiles, users will now see a digest of friends' updates in RSS-like fashion when they log on. It's called news feed, and the new format gives users a quick heads-up on the goings-on of their
friends, highlighting things like new photos, a vacation location, or changes in relationship status. Previously, users had to dig for this information, but as of Tuesday, it will be featured
prominently. The idea is clearly to get more usage out of the site. It not only encourages users to update their info more often, but could result in more page views. However,
Forbes takes a
different view, saying the new news-feed format could result in condensing the user experience of Facebook to just their home page. That would mean users viewing less pages--and therefore, fewer ads.
It's a gamble--and it will be interesting to see the consequences. It would be very interesting to see Microsoft's reaction to the news, as the media giant just signed an ad agreement to deliver
search and banner ads to the site. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg says that as long as users continue to log on frequently--there were 14.4 million page views in July--page views shouldn't be a
problem. "We think users are going to check the news feed like a core utility--like e-mail," he says. We don't really care how long people stay at the site."
Read the whole story at Forbes.com »
