What self respecting social media blog could let the Facebook redesign slip by without a post dedicated to it. Now is a good time considering that Mark Zuck has deemed that we shut down our silly protests and just accept his virtual reality. Inspite of short term solutions offered, well meaning advice, and groups consisting of millions of supporters, Facebook was unruffled, plodded on with migrating everyone to the new design, and was perhaps quite sure of the premise that there wouldn’t be an exodus of users because of a design change. I, for one, am not unhappy with the new design, since functionality has been improved (for me) but at the cost of a relatively (since Fb was never known to be easy) ‘cosier’ design. I also thought that apps suffer a lot since they are relegated to a separate tab, and are not automatically seen when i visit a person’s profile. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.
I was quite intrigued by Startup meme’s smart comparison of the new Facebook design and Vista, and possible strategic implications. The possibility of Microsoft’s increasing interest was further fueled by a TechCrunch article I read recently. It raises a good point of how, to a functionally conscious generation, Windows and Office might be dispensable, in favour of the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn etc. With the rise of collaborative tools, and cloud computing in the horizon, this might be bad news for Microsoft, especially since the success of Windows and Office has always been taken for granted. In such a scenario, a Facebook collaboration (and perhaps acquisition later) makes a lot of sense. After all, Facebook is trying to become a web OS, as this post suggests. Its a great read and goes on to wonder where the Facebook browser is. But to get back, all this means Facebook would open up a crucial second front for MS.
The interesting part for me is who will influence whom more. Microsoft, to me, has been an old style capitalist product company which just sends out factory made stuff without listening to consumers, while Facebook, notwithstanding its latest design move, is a ‘social’ service that listens to consumers. Hey, Mark Zuck did write a post to address the plebeians, and as Mashable points out, 4 out of his 6 posts has been to address user concerns. But with 1% MS in its lifestream, Facebook quite firmly put down the user created anti new design rebellion, I wonder if its a change in attitude we witnessed. If MS influences Facebook than vice versa, it could be fatal to both. Or perhaps Mark Zuck is just promoting this movie, just like this Facebook app does. 😉 Speaking of Facebook apps, a new one – Rock the Vote, allows Facebook members to register their names in the voting list, online. (via Startup Meme)
While on social media and design, there’s been some activity happening on Friendfeed too, they released a new beta version recently, changed the design, and after listening to user feedback, made additional tweaks which were appreciated. The new beta had shifted the navigation structure from the top to the right, and made provisions to organize friends into different groups. Two additional features are photo hosting, and allowing users to view the FriendFeed stream of other users easily from the interface. Following user feedback, the navigation bar was moved to the left. But I think the best addition would be the grouping of same stories. What used to happen was thats everal people used to share the same story when it broke, now the first share will be shown with the option below to check out who else shared the same. The options below is for all services – a tweet, a delicious share, a google reader share would all be displayed. This would go a long way in reducing what makes up a large portion of ‘noise’. Nice to see good changes and the importance they are giving to user feedback.
Sometimes, I wonder whether organisations, including social media ones, are just like a ‘famous people’ stereotype. Do they stop being friendly and have lesser conversations when they become famous?
until next time, when socialism turns to capitalism…..