Facebook Faced with Lots of Unhappy Users
Remember the old adage of “If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it” that many of us have known since early on in life? It appears Facebook missed the memo.
The king of social media has rolled out a number of changes to user pages, leaving some of the site’s 750 million users screaming bloody murder.
Design Changes Met with Sheer Terror
The company’s redesign involves much noted alterations to user newsfeeds, which now document stories centered around how “interesting’ they may be to the user. According to a Facebook developer, the user will need not worry about missing out on important items, given that all their news will flow in a single stream with the important stories going top to bottom.
Another new feature is the blue notation of “Top Stories” on a user page in the corner of the update. There is also a ticker with the feed, providing users with real-time updates.
Granted, most of us do not like change. I was led kicking and screaming into the new world of Twitter a while back when it transferred those of us who liked the original Twitter to its update look. Now that I have been using it for a couple of months, the changes seem inconsequential to me months later.
Will Twitter Benefit?
Will I accept the new Facebook look or decide to stick just with Twitter to please my social media appetite?
Having just caught up with the new Facebook design, my mind is not made up yet on whether or not I’ll like it. Truth to be told, I use Twitter much more than Facebook to begin with, so it may not have that big an impact on me in the long run.
Some Facebook users took to Twitter ironically to note their displeasure with the changes. Among the tweets:
- DepressedDarth – Sorry Facebook, you keep saying you’ve changed, but it’s too late. I’m already in love with someone else, her name’s Twitter;
- tomatCIM – my biggest issue with the @facebook redesign: too many things to click and too many notifications. It leaves me feeling stressed;
- MaxScoville – Dear Facebook, if I cared that much what acquaintances from high school are up to, I’d still hang out with them;
- rillawafers – if you’re complaining about facebook, you spend too much time onfacebook.
With Facebook set to hold its annual conference (f8) on Sept. 22, users may receive more details and/or assistance with questions they have to the changes.
Given the changes Twitter underwent in the last year, I’m sure there were many users like me who initially scoffed at the idea of change, but then settled in and adapted to them once we knew what the reality of the situation was.
In initially looking at the latest Facebook changes, my first reaction is the page looks more cluttered than it already was. Too many lists, subscribe buttons etc. do not bode well for a page, especially when viewer attention spans like mine can be short.
As for any long-term fallout from the changes, yes, some users will cancel their accounts and go elsewhere for their social networking fix.
Others, much like me, will deal with the changes and decide whether or not we want to continue using the site regularly or just keep our accounts and update them from time to time.
In the meantime, Facebook is likely to continue facing the wrath of users who just cry out…. “If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix it.”
Dave Thomas writes extensively for www.business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses. Among the areas of interest he covers is telephone systems.
I still don’t like the Twitter changes. The old was much better.
The Facebook changes are incentive for me to try Google+.
David,
I’m in agreement with you on Twitter. Too many of these companies think they’re doing us a favor with these upgrades…. when all we really want is consistency.
Facebook is not user friendly to all that people who run the website should be less secretive and more helpful to users who don’t want to spend hours figuring out how to use it efficiently or who weren’t born with a computer .
this makes google+ popular may fb in future fail lets see ….
Facebook has exaggerated on their latest updates. People tend to want the “old FB” back. People are confused and really annoyed having such updates. I don’t know why the designers are messing this up. Truly a disklike on it. If they happen to place a dislike button? I would be one of the many who would click it TODAY.
I hope FB can resolved this and come up with a good way that people are wanting these days or they would end up people registering new Social Media site.
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Genie
Quoting your post:
“According to a Facebook developer, the user will need not worry about missing out on important items, given that all their news will flow in a single stream with the important stories going top to bottom.”
That’s where the fail occurs. Artificial Intelligence is simply not up to the task of deciding what posts are important to me. I don’t check in all the time, but it was my right to look at top posts (based mostly on how many people commented) or the chronological news feed. Mostly, I looked at the chronological because it was too much work to try to see EVERYTHING.
As for the idea that FB is free so we should take our lumps: Remember that they make millions on our eyeballs. Nobody ever told the viewers of broadcast TV that they had no right to complain.
I think Facebook have obviously felt the threat from Google+ and these changes are designed to nullify that threat, I actually don’t think the changes have been that bad and I like the lists feature (emulating Google’s Circles feature).
I do understand the need for innovation, especially in light of Google+’s amazing growth in such a short time, however, as a longtime Facebook user I find the changes upsetting. The time it will take me to adjust to the new features is time better spent doing other activities. Although many people will probably adjust I have stopped using Facebook as much as I used to. I hate that Ticker!