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by Mike Zazaian September 6, 2006 - 1:50pm, 2 Comments

Only minutes after Facebook launched it’s new News Feed service, users gathered into vicious “group” mobs and called for its removal.

Much to users’ dismay the News Feed and Mini Feed service appeared on Facebook homepages yesterday, apparently threatening many set-in-their-ways Facebook Junkies. Both services were implemented to help users track the activity of their friends in a live-feed manner, so users wouldn’t have to scour every friend’s page to see what’s new. However, many users fear that the new features will be used to stalk other members, the word “Stalkbook” even coming up in one group’s conversation about the topic.

In reaction to the new features, Facebook users established a group called, “Students Against Facebook News Feed,” which by the end of its first day had already reached 100,000 members.  Michael Arrington at Techcrunch reported on many other similar anti-News Feed sites popping up around the web:

A site calling to boycott Facebook on September 12 has also been put up, as well as a petition to have the features removed. Other sites are popping up as well. There seems to be no counterbalancing group or groups in favor of the changes.

Citing all of the ruckus stirred by the new features, Facebook CEO and creator Mark Zuckerberg posted a blog entry in which he tried to put out some of the flames.

We’re not oblivious of the Facebook groups popping up about this (by the way, Ruchi is not the devil). And we agree, stalking isn’t cool; but being able to know what’s going on in your friends’ lives is. This is information people used to dig for on a daily basis, nicely reorganized and summarized so people can learn about the people they care about.

What most users seem to missing about this change in the Facebook interface is that Facebook is directly sacrificing page hits for usability. Whereas a user would have to click through the page of every friend of theirs in the past, the new News Feed allows the user to check out what’s new by just looking at the homepage. The move marks a dramatic reduction in overall clicks, showing that they really have the user’s best interest in mind on this one.

It seems to me though that because Facebook’s been the same for so long, people were just weirded out by seeing this major interface change. As users begin to see the enormous usefulness of this feature, they’ll be switching over to the “Students Who Can’t Live Without Facebook News Feed” group in no time.

(Be the first to rate this article)  Loading ...

by Mike Zazaian September 6, 2006 - 1:50pm, 2 Comments

Only minutes after Facebook launched it’s new News Feed service, users gathered into vicious “group” mobs and called for its removal.

Much to users’ dismay the News Feed and Mini Feed service appeared on Facebook homepages yesterday, apparently threatening many set-in-their-ways Facebook Junkies. Both services were implemented to help users track the activity of their friends in a live-feed manner, so users wouldn’t have to scour every friend’s page to see what’s new. However, many users fear that the new features will be used to stalk other members, the word “Stalkbook” even coming up in one group’s conversation about the topic.

In reaction to the new features, Facebook users established a group called, “Students Against Facebook News Feed,” which by the end of its first day had already reached 100,000 members.  Michael Arrington at Techcrunch reported on many other similar anti-News Feed sites popping up around the web:

A site calling to boycott Facebook on September 12 has also been put up, as well as a petition to have the features removed. Other sites are popping up as well. There seems to be no counterbalancing group or groups in favor of the changes.

Citing all of the ruckus stirred by the new features, Facebook CEO and creator Mark Zuckerberg posted a blog entry in which he tried to put out some of the flames.

We’re not oblivious of the Facebook groups popping up about this (by the way, Ruchi is not the devil). And we agree, stalking isn’t cool; but being able to know what’s going on in your friends’ lives is. This is information people used to dig for on a daily basis, nicely reorganized and summarized so people can learn about the people they care about.

What most users seem to missing about this change in the Facebook interface is that Facebook is directly sacrificing page hits for usability. Whereas a user would have to click through the page of every friend of theirs in the past, the new News Feed allows the user to check out what’s new by just looking at the homepage. The move marks a dramatic reduction in overall clicks, showing that they really have the user’s best interest in mind on this one.

It seems to me though that because Facebook’s been the same for so long, people were just weirded out by seeing this major interface change. As users begin to see the enormous usefulness of this feature, they’ll be switching over to the “Students Who Can’t Live Without Facebook News Feed” group in no time.