The Facebook makeover is a permanent one it seems, with 100 million users now being forced to move to the new design as the option to revert to the old design is removed.The new Facebook was launched a few months ago, with the idea being that the site would be "simpler, cleaner, more relevant, and easier to control". At the time, users who tried the new version were given the option of changing back to the old style at the click of a button. Facebook has said that of the 40 million users who tried the new look, 30 million of them chose to stick with it.
However, the option to switch back to the old style has now been removed, forcing Facebooks' 100 million users to move to the new version whether they like it or not. This has sparked a wave of complaints from users, along with the creation of several Facebook groups protesting against the move. One group called 1,000,000 AGAINST THE NEW FACEBOOK LAYOUT! appeared soon after the initial launch of the new design and has almost 2 million members to date.
Mark Slee, Product Manager for the new Facebook explained in a blog that they have welcomed feedback from users on the new design and have made further changes based on this, including simplifying the top navigation and moving the Applications menu to the bottom bar of every page. He explained that "we understand that some people will be uncomfortable with the changes. But over time, we think people will appreciate the advantages of the new design and the new features it offers".
However, this isn't the first time that Facebook has faced backlash from its users over changes to the site, and it probably won't be the last. In 2006 the introduction of a 'news feed' function caused a similar level of protest, and in 2007 the launch of a tracking device called Beacon was met by even worse opposition. It didn't take long for users to learn to live with news feeds, and in fact they are now accepted as a staple Facebook feature, however the same can't be said for Beacon.
Mark Zuckerberg, creator of the social networking giant said "any change can be a big deal to our users because this how they connect with their family and friends. So when you move things around, it can be perceived as being not a positive thing even when it's a positive change".
However, recent figures from comScore suggest that Facebook doesn't have too much to worry about, with traffic to the site still consistently showing an increase month on month. For the past few months there has been around a 6% increase in traffic every month, with UK visitor numbers increasing from 13 million in January to almost 18 million in August. Facebook has also seen the % share of the total audience creep up over the past few months, from 39% in January to 50% in August.
When we compare this to other major UK social networks we can see that while Facebook's popularity continues to rise, visitor numbers for Bebo and MySpace are showing a slight decline.
It will be interesting to see how Facebook traffic is affected over the next few months following the full launch of the new design, and whether or not users jump ship and move to other social networks. However, at the moment it doesn't look like Facebook's quest for internet domination will be slowing down any time soon.
