Users give thumbs down to Facebook redesign

March 19, 2009

Enlarge

This March 5, 2009 screenshot shows a page from Facebook featuring their new page layout. Facebook's redesign is getting an emphatic thumbs down from the notoriously change-wary users of the social network.

Facebook's redesign is getting an emphatic thumbs down from the notoriously change-wary users of the social network.

Ninety-four percent of the nearly 800,000 Facebook users who have voted in a poll on the site said they do not like the changes rolled out in the past two weeks.

Only six percent said they approve the redesign.

Among those writing comments alongside the poll, user Nik McCarthy said the change "Pretty much sucks. Better before."

"I was still figuring it out and it changed," said Melissa Reed, and user Mark Wysocki wrote that the design was too cluttered, with "way too much information."

"Bring back the old style," he urged.

"Hard to navigate," said Chanel Chartrand. "Really don't like it."

Mara Soriano was among the minority who liked the changes. "I think it's fantastic," she wrote.

As TechCrunch blogger Michael Arrington wrote, Facebook maybe should have heeded the old saw: "Don't ask a question you don't want the answer to."

Changes to the home page include making the status update question "What's on your mind?" adding real-time Twitter-like chatter and tools that let people organize and filter messages or updates from those listed as "friends."

The fast-growing Facebook boasts more than 175 million members and founder Mark Zuckerberg believes the number will reach 200 million by the end of this year.

---

• Join PhysOrg.com on Facebook!
• Follow PhysOrg.com on Twitter!

---

(c) 2009 AFP