Los Angeles — Social networking website Facebook, which has never been shy about tweaking its design, on Sunday unveiled a new set-up for profile pages that complements photos center stage, allow users to highlight important friends and go into far more detail on their jobs.
Some of the enormous changes include a new capsule at the top of a user’s profile page that culls information they have already recorded in order to describe them in a few phrases, highlighting their job, relationship status, location, education and recent photos.
“And since there is often no better way to learn about a person than through photos, the profile now includes a row of recently tagged photos of you,” says Facebook engineer Josh Wiseman. “In my case, my profile features pics from my engagement and wedding, two of my life’s most recent and happiest moments.”
The top of the page will now include a basic intro to a user, such as location, job, school, partner, etc. You can indicate projects you have worked on, classes you have attended, your favorite musicians, sports, teams, etc. And directly underneath that is a bar of photos that you have been “tagged” in, increasing the number of pictures of the person’s face you see on the page so your information is displayed more visually.
The new design is currently opt-in, but Facebook mentioned that it will roll it out to the world by early 2011. However, those who are tempted and want it immediately can go to the new profile explainer, which will let you explore the new pages and let you adopt it now. But be cautioned, there is no undoing the choice.
“Thanks to the cool new ‘infinite scroll’ feature, it is now much speedy and more fun to browse all your photos,” says Wiseman. “The Friends page now allows you to quickly find the people you are looking for: just search by name, hometown, school or a number of other dimensions. I met a ton of new Ultimate players at Nationals, and the new profile has made it so much easier to locate and learn about them.”
While announcing the redesign, Facebook does not revealed why it is changing the design and that might be the point. There is nothing very revolutionary about these changes. Rather, they represent more of a refresh of the existing look. That should help the social network avoid the backlashes that have met some of its previous design changes.
Previous modifications on the world’s biggest social networking website have sometimes erupted in criticism on how the company handles privacy issues, generating occasional backlashes against Facebook.
The revamp comes amid ongoing speculation about when Facebook will launch an initial public offering. However, the move indicates Facebook’s aspiration to compete with LinkedIn, a career-networking Web site with 85 million members. It too is considered a strong IPO candidate.
The change are in line with Mark Zuckerberg’s ardent belief that people are hard-wired to look at faces, so now the page will be filled with them.
The social networking giant is “gradually” rolling out the new design and the company says it hopes to get it to everyone by early next year. If you want it immediately, you can upgrade here.