The Cauldron

Sometimes, we all need a fresh coat of paint. Whether it's a new hairstyle, different outfit, or something as drastic as tattoos and body piercings, there's something compelling about changing one's look. Naturally, not everyone will be thrilled with the changes, but at most, we're talking about dozens or possibly a few hundred folks who might have something to say about the makeover.

But what if it were 100 million people?

In July, the popular social networking site Facebook.com began undergoing some aesthetic changes of its own. The modular, box-based design was swapped out for a tabbased interface, similar to web-browsers such as Mozilla's Firefox. These tabs serve to regulate content that had (to this point) appeared on the profile proper onto a self-contained module.

In addressing the reasoning behind the changes, Facebook project manager Mark Slee said, "First of all, we wanted to make the site clean and simple by reducing clutter; we wanted to give you more control over your profile, and we wanted to focus on the recent and relevant content on the site."

Opinions varied widely, with some 40 million users switching to the new interface, and 10 million of those users switching back. In Sept. the vast majority of accounts switched to the new design permanently, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming that "almost all 100 million people around the world on Facebook are using the new design."

However, not all is peace and love in the world of Facebook. A large and vocal segment of the population has opposed the new direction, some going so far as to hack their way into the old layout (This only lasted a few days). Groups within Facebook such as "1,000,000 AGAINST THE NEW FACEBOOK LAYOUT" (which as of this writing boasts a population of 2,565,495 members) are lobbying to bring about a return to form. The author had a hard time finding equivalent support in favor of the new design, topping out with "Change Is Good And So Is The New Facebook" and its 823 members.

Still not satisfied, I hit the streets (tubes, really) of the World Wide Web, and asked people what they thought, positive or negative.

Joe from Mansfield felt that "…there weren't any real problems with the old one" and that "[they] released Facebook Vista, except without the few good things."

Brandi from Denver added "I actually liked seeing everything on one page. I like the non conformity within the conformity."

Weighing in on the other side of things, Kat from New York admitted, "it did put my panties into a twist when I first began using it, but I've come to like the streamlined approach. I like having the millions of applications that people add to their page…consolidated so that I don't scroll for miles before getting to their wall. The multi-tiered tab system for simple classification of Wall, Info, and Apps. makes navigation easy… I find it cleaner and smoother."

Since this is Mark Zuckerberg's baby, it seems fitting to give him the last word.

Addressing concerns in a Sept. 18 entry, Zuckerberg said, "Facebook is a work in progress. We constantly try to improve things and we understand that our work isn't perfect. We appreciate the thousands of you who have written in to give us feedback. Even if you're joining a group to express things you don't like about the new design, you're giving us important feedback and you're sharing your voice, which is what Facebook is all about."

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