September 22, 2011
Once again there will be major changes to Facebook as users know it. This time it’s user profile pages that will get a new look, according to Facebook. Its goal is to make the profile simpler, relevant, and to give users a greater degree of control. Details about the redesign have not been fully release but it is expected to be announced at Facebooks f8 Developer Conference this week. But workers at Facebook have spoken to the press and released some minor details. The redesigned profiles will be more “sticky”, says one staffer. One of the goals of the new profiles is to get users to stay on them for longer. Another employee said that Facebook will launch a media platform at f8 that will include music and video from partner sites that will display the media content a user is watching or listening to on their profiles. Essentially, when you’re listening to Lady Gaga on Spotify, your friends can see and access that on your Facebook profile. The redesigned profiles are said to be part of a larger push into social ecommerce, according to employees. They say they have heard whispers that Facebook intends to give Facebook Credits more prominence and that a Facebook app store may emerge at f8. Another staffer says that Facebook’s push into ecommerce may be related Project Spartan, an HTML5-based mobile platform rumored to be launching soon. The social networking giant remains tight-lipped about the details but the anticipated changes are causing a great deal of excitement.