It wouldn’t be wrong to say that it was Facebook that gave social media the importance it holds today. Although, seeds were well laid by websites like Orkut and MySpace, but it was Facebook without any doubt that really got the game going. In spite of stiff competition from other social media sites like Twitter, Facebook has managed to dominate the market and still stands to be one of the strongest contenders for social media, afterall, a billion active users is no joke.
To keep up its popularity and provide its users something to think about, Facebook has been introducing changes and innovations every now and then. Love it, hate , but you can’t ignore the changes that they make (as if we have a choice!). Most of these changes revolve around the design, the layout or the features that the website offers. Facebook now allows you to share status messages, share photos, upload videos or share videos from YouTube, exchange personal messages, play games, chat with friends, video-chat with friends etc. All of these features were added gradually. There have been several changes in the design and outlay too. Earlier this year, Facebook introduced the TImeline, which was radically different from the earlier approaches.
The new Thing…
Yet again, Facebook has a host of changes to be implemented in the coming few weeks. Whether they’d be for the better or for worse, only time can tell. Like before, the changes for design and layout would start with a few users and then for the larger public. The ones that are already circulating include the option to review all your activities for the year gone by, a little button on the top right hand-side to remind you who all can see your posts etc. Also, Facebook now by default allows everybody to send you a message, though the messages are filtered by two preferences- basic filtering and strict filtering.
The changes to the outlay that maybe expected in the near future mainly include the posts on the Timeline to be filed in a single column. Currently, the posts spread over the Timeline in two columns and annoyingly enough, keep changing position. This would be checked. The left side would strictly show the posts and other activities like recent friends added, applications used, places visited go to the left side. The space after all the activity-related updates on the left side would remain empty. That’s not all. The highlighted posts that used to stretch across the Timeline would now be the same size as regular posts, but with a blue ribbon to differentiate them.
Other more interesting changes include the change in the data use policy. This may not have a severe impact on the direct privacy of the users but still it needs to be watched out. Nonetheless, the most interesting rumor still remains to be whether Facebook would start charging for it’s services? The talks on this have been around since forever but they have never been this strong. January 15 might be the Judgment Day. (Source: Weeklyworldnews.com)
All in all, Facebook is again all set to roll in new changes. As always, there would be people who will like them and there would be the ones who won’t be too happy and again people who won’t be bothered at all but we all would still be using Facebook!
Image Credit: Allfacebook.com