When the Borg assimilated Jean-Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise, there was the resounding phrase: "Resistance is futile." I logged into Facebook last week to find that same methodology rang true--the site is change is here to stay.



Seeing the "go back to the old Facebook" link disappear was rough. When I look at the new Facebook page, I feel as if I see everything and nothing all at once. Some may argue that its more streamlined; I think it makes less sense to the eye. For example, birthdays are now part of the jumble in the right sidebar, whereas before they were clearly isolated. Coming from a religious happy birthday wisher, I can already tell that I will increasingly be missing wall and gift-giving opportunities.

Although I have never built a Facebook app, I could imagine that developers may be displeased about the changes as well. Essentially, their hard work gets moved from prime Facebook real estate [front and center on a profile page] to the smelly lot that no one wants [the last "box" tab]. This may be in line with
the filtering of garbage apps, which is appreciated, but it seems that one bad apple is ruining it for everyone.

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No matter where I turn, the website updates keep coming. A few days back, it was my iGoogle page. With left hand navigation to all your widgets, it was an unwelcome change to my homepage. I like my iGoogle the way it was--not fancy, unassuming and utilitarian. The expanding modules also seem to be a feature that I could go without as the actual use is limited. The only thing that is somewhat interesting is the option to gChat from iGoogle, but I don't gChat all that often anyway [and if you have Adium, this is pretty useless]. Something that I do like is the growing selection of artist themes. My current choice is "Puppies" (how cute is that)!

Then, I checked out my new Facebook page thanks to a post on Mashable. I know the Facebook folks are still working on it, but my first impression was not a great one.

First off, everything seems to be a mirror image of my preexisting Facebook page. I have become accustomed to my picture on the right, links below, and even the mini-feed (which has grown on me) being the first thing I see. It seems that tabs rule the new Facebook page, with wall, info, photos,boxes and an option to add more tabs. This makes it more organized, but can increase the time spent navigating through a friends page. Also, the boxes tab may be the end of Facebook apps as we know it. Who would really be curious as to what apps someone has, unless they are smack dab in the middle of your page?

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