Facebook Prepares For Facelift

Facebook is planning big changes to profile pages, making them "simpler, cleaner and more relevant," and is consulting users about them before they begin the facelift next month.

It’s barely two years since Facebook made the leap from being a social network for students to being open to the general public. Back then MySpace was king, and the whole concept of social networking was new.

But things change. These days social networking and Facebook are household words. Facebook now has plenty of add-ons – a total of 25,000 pieces of software are available – and, as many would agree, it’s time to give a complete makeover to the design of the core profile page, the main page for each user.

However, it will consult with users first, having set up a group of 85,000 around the globe, who will be consulted before changes take effect next month. But one thing that appears likely to happen is that the “wall,” where notes and comments are posted, will be moved off the main user page and onto a separate tab, where a single publisher button will allow users to add to the wall. Another likely change will be to stop the “invite” function on applications.

Obviously, by consulting users, Facebook has learned from its experience, and has been roundly criticized by users for simply imposing changes in the past, such as last year, when it attempted to set up an ad system that collected data about users’ web activities.

The changes will be gradual, beginning next month.