Today, Facebook revamps its feeds, introducing a new feature that allows users to switch between getting real time streams of news or activities taking place, and highlights of what friends have shared online in the preceding 24 hours. News Feed picks re-cap stories based on factors including how many friends have liked and commented on them. The Live Feed option funnels updates and news about online friends’ activities to Facebook home pages as the information surfaces. I’ve gave it try this morning (Singapore time) and I personally find it quite impressive. 😀 But apparently, many Facebook users dislike it because they are able to see EVERYTHING on their home page, be it flairs, friend accepts, and application posts.
Soon after the news broke out on the Facebook blog, a Facebook group called “CHANGE FACEBOOK BACK TO NORMAL‘ was created. Currently, the group has over 110,000 members, and many of them want Facebook to switch back to the old news feeds. Charlie Smee, the creator of the group aims to garner over 100,000 people to join the group, and I’m pretty sure it’ll hit the mark very soon.
This is one of the biggest changes Facebook has made to the site’s user experience but unfortunately, Facebook users aren’t happy about it. Few months back, Facebook’s redesign caused an uproar among users. Countless protest groups were established, users posting angry status messages and even a protest day was planned. Of course, it’s rather difficult to please so many users with the kind of tools that Facebook offers is the diversity of its audience. Whereas some users are self-confessed status addicts, others prefer the photo sharing potential.
Perhaps the site needs to be constructed with a sense of modularity, allowing each user to pick and choose which elements they want, and where they appear. Allowing custom toolbars may be another useful feature that may empower users to create the environment that they desire using the tools that they really use.