Not Everyone's a Fan of Facebook's Overhaul

Users, Firms Say Redesigned Site Is Tough to Navigate

Facebook unveiled a new look this week, sporting fresh profile pages designed to help members better organize their social lives.

But the redesign is drawing complaints from users who say the new site is difficult to navigate and criticism from application developers who worry that the changes will alienate their patrons.

Facebook's changes come as it competes with rival MySpace to become the primary online social network. MySpace also reorganized the layout of its profiles this summer to help make information easier for members to find.

A central part of the redesign includes an expanded Wall, which is the section of a member's profile page where friends can post comments and photos. The Wall now incorporates details about a user's recent activities, previously found on a separate feature known as the news feed. Other applications, such as games and trivia quizzes, as well as personal details, are now on separate tabs in an effort to cut down on clutter.

But Jonathan Dach, 22, of the District, said the new design breaks up profile pages too much, making it more time-consuming to browse the site.

"Splitting up the information . . . forces users to continually click through links to new information," he said. "Every time we do that, Facebook gets to reload the advertisements. To view someone's profile in its entirety, I now have to view at least four times as many ads."

Other users are reluctant to try out the redesigned profile pages, which are currently accessible on an opt-in basis as the redesign is gradually rolled out to all of Facebook's 80 million users over the next few weeks.

"I don't want it to change -- that gives me a whole set of things to figure out on Facebook, which, as I get older, I have less time for," said 22-year-old Yesenia Estrada of Gaithersburg.

One goal of Facebook's new layout is to reduce the clutter from the applications users have downloaded to their profiles. While the colorful games and animated graphics used to dominate profile pages, the applications are now on a separate tab. Facebook said this will give users more control over where they place applications on their profiles.

Some small application developers fear that losing that valuable real estate on users' profile pages will stunt their ability to attract new users.

Others say they need more time to revamp their applications to fit Facebook's new design, which the company announced in May.

"It took me a year to write all these apps, and Facebook expects me to totally rewrite them in a month," Chris Claydon, a developer in Britain, wrote on Facebook's developer forum. "Why even attempt the impossible?"

Larger developers say the redesign will let members show off their favorite games and applications, which will help them gain more users. "For existing apps with a lot of users, you're likely to fit into the new world," said Tim O'Shaughnessy, co-founder of Hungry Machine, which has developed programs that let users review books, movies and beer, for example. "If you're launching a new one, it's going to be a little harder to get visibility."

Kevin Foreman, chief executive of Bevy, a fashion marketing company, in May launched an application aimed at women who like to swap fashion tips. He hopes the redesign will let users show off the application more prominently, rather than automatically being displayed at the bottom of a profile as it used to be.

"We may not see super-growth, but our loyal users will showcase the app because they want to, not because they were tricked into it with spammy techniques," he said.