Today I saw a poll on Facebook asking for “thumbs up, thumbs down” feedback on the recently-changed Facebook Homepage. I voted Thumbs Down and gave the following response:
“Facebook offers many services: photo sharing, event planning, group creation, personal messaging, marketplace vending, notes sharing, etc. Status updates are only a small part of Facebook. The Newsfeed is too focused on status updates, at the expense of every other Facebook service. The Homepage should reflect ALL of Facebook’s services and be an equal mix of photos, wall posts, event details, status updates, group changes, etc.
The new homepage is a lame attempt at copying Twitter. Facebook, because of its many services, is a far more useful tool than Twitter. Facebook needs to focus on what makes it better than Twitter, not what makes it the same. The new Homepage is less functional and useful than the old one. Keep the ability to sort by friend group, but balance the content of the Newsfeed.
Thumbs down to the new homepage.”
Although I dislike the new Facebook homepage, I want to be very clear that I hate Twitter. I currently use Twitter and I think the trend of bite-sized news updates is here to stay. But Twitter itself is a terrible website and service because it provides very little functionality. Twitter.com allows you to share 140 characters of text. Nothing else. Twitter’s inherent limitations have spawned a cottage industry of Twitter clients and add-ons (like TweetDeck and TwitPic) that expand Twitter’s functionality. Functionality that Twitter should have in the first place. I hope Twitter fails, because I don’t need another service sending out bite-sized info about myself. The Facebook newsfeed does that well enough (but could certainly be improved).
Twitter is limited to text. In contrast, my Facebook newsfeed features images, videos, events, groups, public communication (wall posts), and activity from other sites (like Digg and Google Reader). The newsfeed already has the functionality of Twitter, far exceeds Twitter’s basic service, and has a much larger userbase. Facebook is the easiest way for me to share pictures, plan events, and keep up with my friends. In redesigning the Homepage, Facebook has focused too much on the text status update in a misguided attempt to copy Twitter. Twitter’s limitation is the same as the new FB Homepage: I live my life in multimedia, not text. I want to easily share photos, videos, maps, wall posts, event details, status updates, group changes, and other activity. Facebook’s homepage should be a multimedia portal, not a collection of text. Engage the user. The publisher needs to focus on multimedia by default. User’s need a better way to manage their groups, events, photos, and profile. Allow for a full-screen homepage.
If Facebook wants to be the digital nexus of my physical life, then it needs to help me create, share, and promote all of the media in my life. This means more than just text. If the people at Facebook are as smart and responsive as I think they are, you can bet that within the next few months (early May, I’d say), the FB Homepage will change again. This time, to something that doesn’t overwhelm the user with text, and improves upon Twitter’s meager offering in every way possible.
