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Thursday, March 7, 2013

Teh Internets Facebook's Midlife Crisis Continues

Posted by on Thu, Mar 7, 2013 at 11:28 AM

Facebook unveiled their shitty new toupee and sweet-ass new sports car new news feed today. According to The Verge, it'll be bigger—because bigger is always better—and a little more granular. There will also be recommendations, which sound like it'll turn into another source of advertising revenue sooner or later:

Besides the visual redesign, Facebook is also trying to take advantage of its "Like" system and multiple streams of information from apps or different groups of friends. Along with user's friends' stories, it will begin including recommended articles or other content from people or pages that they're interested in — the example given was seeing articles about Taylor Swift if you've liked her on Facebook.

The Verge's Adi Robertson (and lots of commenters) notes that much of this redesign seems to be heavily inspired by Google+. What it means that Facebook is taking notes from a social network that the internet widely considers to be a flop is a riddle for another time. If you're very excited about this new Facebook, which Gizmodo calls "glorious," you can sign up to get it first over here.

 

Comments (12) RSS

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Urgutha Forka 1
I've liked Taylor Swift on facebook, if you know what I mean...
Posted by Urgutha Forka on March 7, 2013 at 11:48 AM
very bad homo 2
Keeps getting worse and harder to use. I gave up on it long ago.
Posted by very bad homo on March 7, 2013 at 11:56 AM
Will in Seattle 3
A lot of those "likes" are from misleading ads. They say things like "Hate Karl Rove and his Communist brethren? Like us!" which then links the Like to a group Birthers Without Borders that:

a. you never heard of
b. is a front for Corn Ethanol Embargo Backers (when you think the embargo needs to end)
c. is used to sell your info to AEI (American Enterprise Instititute, a front for al-Qaeda).

Look, the business model is flawed. ... wait a sec, downloading a patch for NoScript to turn off one of those annoying jiggling ads that tries to "capture" attention but just leads me to hate the company the ad is for even more.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on March 7, 2013 at 12:03 PM
Fnarf 4
They're also popping up "buy your friend a gift" (which turns out to be a subscription to People Magazine) on some people's posts. And, uh, the recommended posts I've gotten so far are suggestions that I'd like to "experience the new meaning of luxury with Lincoln cars" and the like, based on the totally-not-bogus-at-all large numbers of friends who "liked" Lincoln, or Burger King, or Sprint. Uh-huh.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on March 7, 2013 at 12:06 PM
treacle 5
Google+ is a 'flop' because it wasn't able to achieve social critical mass - it was too hard to peel people away from Facebook when all of their friends were on FB; not because of it's design, which is widely considered to be pretty good.
Posted by treacle on March 7, 2013 at 12:19 PM
Big Sven 6
Two years ago, my teenage daughter loved Twilight and FB. Now she can't stand either. Only us middle agers and our keeping up with old high school crushes keep FB going.
Posted by Big Sven http://onedatapoint.blogspot.com/ on March 7, 2013 at 12:26 PM
Will in Seattle 7
@6 for the sad sad insightful win.

Oh tweens, why do you rule the Internets so?
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on March 7, 2013 at 12:52 PM
Fnarf 8
@7, I can't wait to read about your impending arrest on molestation charges.
Posted by Fnarf http://www.facebook.com/fnarf on March 7, 2013 at 12:55 PM
Will in Seattle 9
@8 funny. You ignore advertising trends at your peril, it's why so many dreadful TV shows and movies are coming out right now.
Posted by Will in Seattle http://www.facebook.com/WillSeattle on March 7, 2013 at 1:49 PM
bhowie 10
The "targeted" ads I get are the perfect evidence against buying FB stock. With all the information they have on me and my peer group they should know for example that Applebee's is a terrible thing to promote. They can collect data but knowing what to do with it is the challenge.
Posted by bhowie on March 7, 2013 at 1:51 PM
Supreme Ruler Of The Universe 11
I signed up and got graph search. Stinx.
Posted by Supreme Ruler Of The Universe http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com on March 7, 2013 at 1:54 PM
12
@7 ftw @6 for the sad sad insightful win.
Posted by cracked on March 7, 2013 at 4:56 PM

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