Facebook to begin taking steps to “unclutter” user profiles soon. User complaints of difficulty finding basic information on profile pages cluttered with apps will lead to Facebook providing two versions of a profile page. A “quick version” and an “extended version”.
From the announcement…
“we will soon be launching a “profile clean-up” tool. Similar to how your computer’s desktop will remind you to get rid of unused icons, this tool will give users the option to move extra profile boxes to an “extended portion” of their profile. Users can choose to move these boxes; we will recommend that they keep the Friends Box, Mini-Feed, Wall, Basic and Personal Information as well as the top 12 application boxes they have added. At the bottom of the profile will then be a link to “Show Extended Profile”.”
This will make the user engagement metric even more important for Facebook application developers. There is need for concern if you have authored an app that just sits there on a users profile, it may not be sitting there any longer soon.
Read the full announcement here
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Pat, I know this may not be popular with the gadget crew, but I’m glad to see Facebook is taking this step. Clearly it makes sense from their perspective, as more gadgets attract more attention away from their advertisers.
But as a user, I’ve definitely found myself spending less time on friends’ profiles that are utterly cluttered. I’ll be interested to see how the execution of this takes place.
Yeah, it does seem to be a needed move, they don’t want to be the next “Myspace” when it comes to load times for profiles
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Nice initiative by Facebook and I think Myspace should do likewise because the problem is rather more apparent on Myspace. I often than not close such cluttered pages before it causes more problem.