The changing face of Facebook: Profiles get lift

February 26, 2008 | Eric Eldon | Comments |

fbprofile22608.pngFacebook is showing off a preview of its new profiles, that could significantly change the fate of some third-party Facebook applications.

As with Facebook’s many past changes to its site, this one will alter the rules, to condone certain app’s behaviors while punishing others.

Now, profiles will rely on a horizontal tab interface, where you can click between your profile info (”about”), your wall — which appears to have been combined with your news feed — and your photos. You can also add tabs for your favorite applications.

Note: Facebook seems to be taking a conservative approach this time around than it did with its news feed or advertising efforts. The company is previewing the changes in this Facebook preview fan page, here.

The significance for companies with Facebook applications is that they, applications need to convince users to proactively add their applications into this narrow band of real estate. It’s also not clear if users can delete, say their wall and add in an applications version of the wall.

The move also could be a more convenient integration of the news feed, which previously was your site homepage, which you had to navigate to through a small “home” button. But I think it’s an open question whether or not users want their news feed and wall mixed.

fbprof2022608.png

One also has to wonder how a few big applications will be affected. For example, where will RockYou’s Superwall application or Slide’s Funwall application will have a place in the new profile. These applications have in many cases replaced Facebook’s own wall (Facebook has been trying to kill off these applications, as a result, I hear). Perhaps Facebook designed this

Both of these companies have told me that having a place on Facebook’s (current) profiles is crucial to getting more users, because people spend most of their time on profiles. Both companies have managed to maintain robust usage — using these “walls” to show off videos and other content.

fbprof3022608.png

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About the Author, Eric Eldon

Eric currently covers digital media technology and business news, especially what's happening on social networks and their platforms. He also writes and edits stories about venture capital, and lots of other stuff, too. He started at VentureBeat in the spring of 2007, half a year or so after Matt Marshall left his reporting job at the San Jose Mercury News to found the site. Eric previously cofounded a startup called Writewith, that was building editorial software for newspapers and other groups of writers. The startup didn't work out, but he learned a lot.

  • Are you guys on the payroll of Facebook or something? VentureBeat seems to have endless, fawning coverage of Facebook. I'll admit that I am in the minority of those who think the site is boorish- and maybe it is because of my age. I don't think though that as their user base grows up they will put up with the ridiculous restrictions on Facbook- for example, I tried to post a relevant message on a different city, and was not allowed to do that- and who cares what school I went to. Facebook is a kiddie site- it is for people with too much time on their hands.
  • Rob Gordon, fair enough. I'm willing to take heat for covering Facebook. I'm one of the people who think that it does matter. I'm making a point of covering why, as you'll see from the posts I've done so far about advertising, e-commerce, and other ways that people can create businesses out of social networks.

    I know that according to pole I did last Friday afternoon about Facebook, *half* of a fairly random sampling of VentureBeat readers think that Facebook is doomed.

    http://venturebeat.com/2008/02/22/facebook-hiri...

    I generally do posts that argue against that argue against skeptics like you. But of course, you'll also notice that we do not-so-fawning posts about Facebook from time to time. :)
  • Sherwin
    These changes are horrible. Especially if they "integrate" the Wall into Mini Feed or put the Wall in its own tab. The wall is really the whole point of facebook, its how you communicate. Look, people go on facebook to stalk. Anything that impedes stalking is no good.
  • Sherwin is blunt and scary but has a point. The wall is the most fun part of Facebook. I can't wait for the online mass-hysteria if they kill the wall as is.

    The reason why Facebook is relevant is because it knows more about a massive group of people than even Google does. That *alone* is worth billions in terms of targeted marketing and advertising opportunities.
  • This is a brilliant move. Facebook's attraction for users from the beginning was that it offered a less cluttered interface. While the apps do offer new features, they've dragged Facebooks marginally closer to MySpace. Improvements like this will only consolidate Facebook's comparative advantage as a social networking tool.
  • I am basically a fan of Facebook, which is one site that has managed to hold my interest/distract me for a while. Yet, it is always in danger of straying too far from it's roots, in which friends could talk and interact with one another in a relaxing and fairly intimate way. A lot of these apps encourage too much impersonal behaviour and also the annoying pressure to 'invite friends' who probably aren't interested in joining the app.

    'Funwall' has become nothing more than spam for me, with videos and chain-letters clogging the space. I just ignore it now. Superwall is basically okay, but it just means having two walls, one a bit more flexible than the other and it didn't catch on with friends- perhaps if it had it might have become a source of spam too. So I do understand a legitimate push on Facebook's part to 'kill them off'.

    I have actually started making new aquaintances, maybe even friends there, so I am exposing myself to possible annoyances- but for some reason this hasn't happened, perhaps due to the checks and balances you are allowed.

    What I am getting at (in a round-about way!) is that Facebooks unique strengths are based around being able to intimately interact with real friends online, with games and fun messaging. It has been unobtrusive and intuitive enough to attract people like me, in their 30's, that are alienated by the glitzy, rap-culture influenced style of things like MySpace, that is from an emerging culture of younger generations which almost scare us old fogies!

    Mixing everything up with news feeds that concern people you may not even know (i.e. friends of friends) could water down the comfort level. At the same time, though, it needs to grow through people meeting new people, it's just finding the best way to do this.
  • diana
    it's too hard to change or cancel our profiles on the facebook ,, why ?