Tech | December 06, 2010 | 5 comments

Facebook unveils profile pages redesign‎ - do you like them?

 

Mark Zuckerberg's profile page as viewed with Facebook's new profile page layout.

 

Facebook has unveiled their new-look profiles, as promised by Mark Zuckerberg during a TV interview on Sunday evening.

Here are the notable changes:

 

The new introduction

At the top, centre of your profile page you'll now see a summary of your life story and tagged pictures of you, showing what you've been up to. Included in this 'quick overview' are things like your date of birth, where you grew up, what you studied, where you work, who you're in a relationship etc. 

Facebook say it's 'the kinds of conversation starters you share with people you've just met or exchange with new friends as you get reacquainted', which is perhaps true but this is the one area of the new profiles that does seem too much of an over-share to me. Even though it's information I've already shared elsewhere on my profile, seeing it all front and centre alongside the most recent pictures of myself did feel a little invasive and make me reconsider how much personal information I really want to share on Facebook. In snippets, it's what I share with people when I've just met them but all in one go? Too much.

 

Featured friends

According to Facebook "you can now highlight the friends who are important to you, such as your family, best friends or teammates". Like MySpace, then.

Highlighting my best friends seems like a daft, childish idea that will only, presumably, alienate other friends. Presumably the real reason it's there is so advertisers can be told their products are being recommended with better personal relevancy than ever.

 

New experiences

Now you can add the projects you worked on at your job, classes you took in school, your favourite bands and sports teams and even, your 'life philosophy' and if rumours are to be believed, a strand of your DNA.

 

Improved Photos and Friends Pages 

Browsing photos is easier now, thanks to the implementation of a Twitter and Tumblr-style "infinite scroll" feature. On the friends page, you can search for people by name, hometown, school and so on. 

 

Smaller font

From the looks of things, the default font has dropped from 11pt to 9pt. 

 

What do you think? Are you a fan of the new profiles or would you rather things stayed as they are?

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5 comments // Facebook unveils profile pages redesign‎ - do you like them?

richjm
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