5.04 - The One with great Facebook debate

New layout or old layout? It seems like there are a lot of people who just can't handle the changes that Facebook has made on their site. I'm getting tired of people who keep complaining about it. First it was a petition for them to remove the "is" from the status...and when they did...there was an outcry for it to come back. So...I'm going to take a look at the old layout and the new. Here's a screen cap of my profile page under the "old" layout.

Having the search bar and a quick look at you top applications is nice. But to me everything under your profile picture just seems too cramped. Having all your applications there just seems like a bad use of space. What happens if you have a ton of apps? Ads of the left didn't work well either. You're forced to look at it. Also all your information is over the news feed...it's the first thing you see. There's a lot of dead white space around that can be utilized...So...here's the new layout:

So Facebook took that dead white space and made the page wider while placing the ads on the right...where it is less intrusive and most of the time I don't even notice them. They also removed the apps and the non-sense that's under the profile picture...placed your info there to the side, out of the way. If people want to read it...it's there...but it's not the first thing they see on your news feed. I like how Facebook placed the apps under a drop down menu...clean and accesible when you want it. They also cleaned out all of your useless apps that you have on your page and placed them on the boxes page, not strewed all over your profile page. Not everyone wants to scroll down your page for hours to find your wall.

I'm not saying that I love all the changes that Facebook has made. There are a few things that I could do without...but it's a step in the right direction. Theses guys are on the cutting edge of technology and they are trying to share it with you. Could you imagine if none of the websites changed for the better? The changes made were to make the page load faster, and let you manage your page better. Remember it's a free service...I'm sure if Facebook wanted to charge a subscription fee...they could and they could make a lot more money. Facebook is the most user friendly social networking site around...and more and more people are joining it by the second. I'm sure the staff are working their hardest to make it the best user experience they can. If you can't handle the new layout...then stick with the old. But bear in mind...the internet is a fast changing environment in a fast paced world. Blink and you'll be left behind...

Oh...and one more thing...a note to Facebook...get rid of the spam messages!