Since its creation in 2003, Facebook has since become a household name, a verb, and a social medium by which millions are people are connected. With unique visitors of upwards of 70M, it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In those years, several updates have been made: some good, some great, some…questionable. Below is my opinion on what succeeded and what should have been avoided.
August 2006 – Notes (Never really that popular to begin with)
One of the first major additions was Facebook’s attempt to mirror blogging. Using Notes, users could write their inner-most thoughts and feelings that a standard user profile couldn’t hold. However, Notes have one major flaw: they mirror blogging, the most popular and widely competitive Web 2.0 nonsense. Most users just stick to their own blogs and share the links in their profile.
September 2006 – News Feed (rose in popularity)
Ah, yes! The controversial News Feed! This baby started a riot when it was first introduced over two years ago. People couldn’t stand that select private information from their profile was plastered for all to see. The cries didn’t go unnoticed, and customizable privacy features were added. Today the News Feed stands as a portal to the rest of Facebook; it’s the best page to look at when you’re just bored.
February 2007 – Gifts (Nosedived in popularity)
These cute little buggers above are called Facebook ‘gifts’ and when originally introduced, purchases of them automatically donated a portion to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Initially, these proved very popular, but in time the donation aspect ended and Facebook Platform (which I’ll cover in a bit) dominated virtual gift-giving with free options. Most gifts rest stagnant in profiles as remnants of the once popular gimmick.
May 2007 – Platform and Applications (Declined slowly in popularity)
One of the biggest changes to Facebook was its attempt to give more creativity to the users. With the new Platform system, any user could create an application for near-immediate use. (For more on applications, feel free to check out my study on them located here)
These haven’t lost as much popularity as gifts, but they have certainly declined in interest. What was once fascinating to users soon became irritating as invitations to new ’snow ball fights’ bombarded inboxes. Jesse Farmer of 20Bits writes about the decline of the Platform and how the developing forums are falling into disuse.
May 2007 – Marketplace (Stagnant)
There’s not much to say about the Marketplace other than it was overwhelmed by the same-month introduction of the Platform. It’s simply Craigslist with one major difference: only users in your networks can see the listings. Whether that’s an advantage or a disadvantage is up to you.
July 2007 – Attachments on Wall (Smart move, high popularity)
Facebook got it right this time! Allowing users to add video, links, and more to friends’ walls was a brilliant and timely move. I have no complaints about this, and I’ve discovered some great videos thanks to it.
April 2008 – Chat Features (Low popularity)
It was an interesting move for Facebook to add SMS-ish features to the system, which are now implementable in popular freeware programs like Pidgin. Did Facebook users really need the ability to chat while they were checking in? Not really, but Facebook hadn’t made a big update in a while, and nothing’s ever stopped this social network giant from updating just for the sake of updating in the past.
July 2008 – ‘New’ Facebook (Mixed popularity)
Eric wrote an extensive review of the new Facebook format when it was new. It pretty much sums up what everyone thinks: meh. It’s got a lot of good, but some bad. Overall, users have adjusted to the new format well, and I personally like the less cluttered look.
December 2008 – New Signup Process (New!)
Facebook is currently testing a simpler signup process. They’re hoping to close the gap between Facebook and MySpace by making it even easier to get a profile. After the riot that resulted from the new terms of service agreement, it’s a wise move to offer something new/good.
As you can see in the graph below, Facebook is definitely closing the gap.
A few days ago 2009 – News Feed Facelift (Too soon to tell)
It’s a pretty controversial move to change the News Feed’s layout, especially since (as I stated above) it was one of most disliked changes when it first debuted. The new feed layout is similar, except way more “Twittery” with real time updates and changes. Also, in order to cram more information onto the feed, updates that used to say “Noah wrote on Anne’s wall” now simply say “Noah -> Anne”.
It’s also much easier to update your status with an obvious content box fitted snuggly at the top of the feed. Yep: it’s Twitter-tastic.
I don’t care for the hyper-abbreviated notices for things like wall posts, but I do like the new organization of the fan pages, events, and birthdays. Also, now all the thumbnails have rounded edges. Now that’s just safer!
