Evidently the New Facebook Sucks
September 15, 2008 |
About a month ago I explained why the new Facebook sucks. Well a few days ago Facebook decided to make the “new Facebook the only Facebook” and went ahead making a lot of people very, very angry. Based on the comments received on the original article, people seem to agree that there is no real usability improvement nor any additional ease of functionality gained from the new design.
What I find pretty funny is the search terms people use to find the article. On the right is a snippet from the site stats here showing 18 recent search engine results that lead to articles on this site. Out of the 18 search terms shown, 14 involve the words “new Facebook sucks.” I guess people are searching this exact phrase looking for people to agree with, or maybe they’re looking for reasons why people think this way. One thing I know for a fact is that no one in the Facebook office searched these terms to find out exactly what people are thinking.
Since the new design has gone fully live I’ve noticed a few other things that bother me. The first is the implementation of Applications. When the design switched over I noticed that there were two applications on my profile that I didn’t know I still had installed. So, I pulled up the Applications page to remove them. Before, there was a simple “remove” link to click. Now, the Applications page has numerous tabs with labels that don’t really make sense. Clicking “remove” on one tab doesn’t remove the application from the other tabs. In order to remove the application in question I had to click half a dozen times to get through all the options and actually remove the app. What a joke. This is probably the single worst effect of the new “design.”
Another thing, that I found more funny than anything, is the updated “People You May Know” box on the front page. I like that they’ve added a line to tell you why you might know the person, but what gets me is how broad the qualifier is. For example:
First of all, I don’t know anyone named Armando but the qualifier here is that we both live in Orlando. According to 2007 statistics, Orlando has over 277,000 people. Evidently because we both live here Armando and I should know each other. This new feature has potential, if Facebook can narrow the qualifier down to something like graduating class. However, based on Facebook’s lack of attention to input from the first go around, I’m not going to hold my breath.
All in all I’ve found myself visiting Facebook less over the last few days and opting more for the iPhone version, which now makes more sense then the web version. Are you visiting Facebook less? What is it that still irks you about the new design? Let me know in the comments.
Kim
September 15th, 2008 | 3:58 pm
I’ve reverted to the old facebook, and millions are doing the same by adding the Developer application, and then going to another link.
Check out all the new groups on Facebook about ‘I hate the new facebook’ etc etc.. You will find a way to revert to the old one.
Former Facebook User
September 15th, 2008 | 4:42 pm
And POSITIVELY EVERYONE, but three Facebook-employed posers, on all of Facebook HATE this terribly designed hackjob called the “new” Facebook to its essence. This will be the death of Facebook from the definite outlook and the real reception of this that Facebook is trying to slick over so unsuccessfully. The difference between other recent changes, such as the MS Office and MacOS Leopard changes, and the earlier MySpace changes, is that they were at least usable, compatible and changeable. The “new” Facebook offers no such options. And for this, they will go the way of Corel, Lotus and Netscape.
seven
September 16th, 2008 | 12:34 am
I keep hearing people around me saying that they think the new Facebook is better, but I hate it. I think it’s confusing and not any more functional. Maybe they’re just laying groundwork for another update or something, but they should have just waited until they had a version that didn’t suck.
Nick Tabick
September 16th, 2008 | 9:33 pm
I’m still mixed on the whole “new Facebook” concept and how it’s been implemented. (And coming from me, somebody who’s been subjected to all manner of poorly-designed undergraduate CS projects - including my own - that’s definitely saying something.)
I don’t particularly like the floating menu palette along the bottom; it’s too reminiscent of a Windows taskbar, and using it requires me to turn off my hack for getting rid of the Facebook Chat crap if I want to use any of the features they’ve moved onto it. It’s useless clutter, and I would rather have a cleaner interface than shortcuts to the applications I use (most of which are set-and-forget anyway), so I keep it hidden.
Oh, and I can second your gripe about the friend suggestions; I regularly get suggestions for people who graduated from my university over twenty years ago and have no other (noticeable) link to me. It’s almost like they’ve run out of people I may actually know and are grasping for straws just to populate their box…