Facebook Begins Pushing New-Look Profile Pages To Users

A censored screenshot of my Facebook profile showing a new-look profile page.

The evolution of Facebook continues un-abated with news that the site is rolling out a new look for user profile pages.

In a blog post announcing the change, Facebook engineer Josh Wiseman says the changes will make it "even easier for you to tell your story and learn about your friends."

Lifehacker's Whitson Gordon describes the changes this way:

The new profile layout doesn't include a huge number of usability changes, but it is a nice redesign—everything is much more visual, your interests, work/education info, and other profile information is all represented via thumbnails of the pages you like, making it all a bit more visual.

Also part of the new design is the ability to highlight particular friends, or groups of friends. Here's how Facebook's Wiseman put it:

You can now highlight the friends who are important to you, such as your family, best friends or teammates. Create new groups of friends, or feature existing lists.

Users will also be able to put more emphasis on their work histories and personal interests, leading Larry Dignan at Between The Lines to ask if this is a challenge to LinkedIn:

In other words, Facebook will at least allow you the option to use it more as an online resume. Funny that’s exactly how LinkedIn is used. If you can list your jobs, key projects and work connections on Facebook does that minimize the importance of LinkedIn? There’s no ready answer to that query, but you have to wonder.

The changes will ripple across Facebook's 500 million users in a gradual roll out that should be completed by "early next year." Early adopters can check out the new look and switch to it right now: www.facebook.com/about/profile.
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A source from: The Two-Way NPR's News Blog

Posted in: 2010,internet