Facebook is giving users plenty of time to adjust to an upcoming redesign. The company unveiled plans yesterday for a new tab-based design yesterday, which is essentially a way of keeping profile pages "simpler" and "cleaner" -- or less MySpaceyish.
The new design, which is expected to roll out some time next month, consists of four tabs: a feed tab, an info tab, a photo tab, and a tab for applications (referred to as a custom apps tab).
While Facebook says the redesign presents new "engagement" points for application developers, we suspect some of those developers are miffed at the possibility of getting relegated to a piece of dead-end real estate on users profile pages. As it stands now, applications get fairly prominent placing (a box) on users' profiles. Under the new design, many could get kicked to a separate tab for custom applications, which could lead to declines in usage and application valuations.
"I am personally optimistic that the changes will be for the best," says Keith Schacht, developer of the Growing Gifts and Hatching Eggs applications on Facebook. "But yeah, there's definitely a concern among developers about how this is going to impact their numbers."
The upshot is that the applications that are consistently useful or engaging could potentially rise to the top while the useless, one-trick ponies will fade to the background.
"The redesign looks pretty good, actually," says Dan Ackerman Greenberg, co-founder of 750 Industries, an application developer. "It's really a step toward Facebook becoming an operating system for the internet, in which case the application tab really becomes like a bookmark tab. You go there to use a service, but it's not necessarily something you want to showcase on your profile.
Photo: Flickr/Jacob Bøtter
