I finally was able to get the “new Facebook” today, which I was pretty hyped about seeing. There has certainly been quite a bit of hype built up about the new home page and how it would be a great challenge to Twitter and the like. It certainly looked like Facebook was taking a lot of cues from the popular micro-blogging platform and applying an extra layer to it. But, the question remains, are we looking at some strange hybrid? A… Twitterbook, if you will? Or are the two different entities entirely?
Well, to begin with, I found the new update to be pretty lacking, honestly. Really, I don’t see that much of a difference at all. It has a new layout, sure, but it still is the same-old-same-old, when you come down to it. There is a feed of everything that your friends are saying and doing. You have to refresh the page to see new updates, just like it was before. Really, the only difference is that it looks a little bit different, for the most part. That isn’t to say that it sucks, per se. It just isn’t Twitter. It is Facebook – this is a good thing! I don’t really see it as giving me this constant stream of information from everyone I have on my Facebook account, but rather I just see myself opening up the page now and then and checking out what people are saying and what they’re doing. You know, basically the same thing that I did before on Facebook. It fills a different niche for what I want to do, which has always been the case. Frankly, I’m happy that I don’t see Facebook turning into Twitter, as I really believe the two should be separate entities with different purposes.
I do admit that it does kind of suck expecting to see something a bit more revolutionary like was hyped, though.
