Facebook To Revamp User Profiles
Facebook’s new-style profile pages will show off tagged photos and bring user information together in one place
Facebook is preparing to revamp its profile pages, giving more prominence to tagged photos and allowing users to prioritise their closest friends.
Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg previewed the new look pages on US television news show 60 Minutes on Sunday evening. He explained the forthcoming design changes to host Lesley Stahl, highlighting the new ‘bio’ space at the top of each profile, which brings together information that is currently scattered around the page.
“You can see all the things you have in common with that person,” said Zuckerberg. “It gives you an amazing connection with that person in a way that the current version of the our profile just doesn’t do.”
Conversation starters
In a company blog post, Facebook software engineer Josh Wiseman explained the changes in more detail. At the top of each profile will appear a basic overview of that person’s information, such as where they’re from, which university they went to, and where they work. Below that will appear a row of recently tagged photos of that person.
Users will also be able to highlight their closest friends, create groups of friends, or feature existing friends lists on their profile pages. “I opted to feature my Ultimate Frisbee teammates, giving the rest of my friends a way to learn more about that part of my life,” wrote Wiseman in the post.
The new profile page layout also encourages users to share more of their interests and activities with friends – from projects they have worked on to their favourite musicians. All of the interests listed will be represented with images, designed to make profiles more visually appealing.
According to Wiseman, the design changes will be rolled out gradually and should be available to everyone by early next year. To see a preview of the new-look profile pages go here.
Facebooks asks users to share more
In her interview with Zuckerberg, Stahl pointed out that the new profile encourages users to reveal more about themselves – harking back to the privacy issues that have plagued Facebook over the last year.
“It’s an important thing for everyone to just be thinking about. I mean privacy and making sure that people have control over their information is one of the most fundamental things on the Internet.” said Zuckerberg. “Do we get it right all the time? No. But it’s something that we take really seriously, and every day, we come to work and try to do a great job on this.”
Back in October Facebook announced plans to encrypt user IDs in order to allay privacy concerns, after popular apps such as FarmVille and Texas HoldEm Poker were found to be transmitting user information. The developer of FarmVille, Zynga, is now being sued over allegations of privacy violations.
