Future of Facebook?
So, Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo today of his desk.. and I couldn't help but notice that his Facebook is different from mine. Some key things to note:
- Instead of a tiny search bar at the top, there is now a very very large white bar. This bar contains text in it, so I'm presuming it might be the new way to post data to Facebook, replacing the comparatively clunky share box we use today.
- Instead of three icons (Adds, Notifications, Inbox) on the top bar, there is a single icon. Perhaps these have been combined into one?
- The icon appears squarer than the others. Maybe its a Facebook icon, since the logo is clearly removed in this version?
- To the right of this large search box seems to be something else, but I can't make it out - and unfortunately I can't just do a CSI-esque "enhance" on the image.
So maybe this is a sneak peak at what is to come in the future? Despite that, however, it should be noted that the changes seen here on Mark's computer may never hit production servers. This is simply some speculation on some noticeable changes.
Facebook Chat launches XMPP Support
In a move that has me saying “Well its about freakin’ time!” – Facebook has launched XMPP Support for their popular Chat Service.
Now, normally I don’t take the time to write out about this kind of thing – except that no other blog post has detailed what your connection credentials are – so I’ll go ahead and write those for you.
Login: USERNAME@chat.facebook.com
Password: Your freakin’ Password
If you do not yet have a username (What the heck is wrong with you? Why not?!) then you can create one at http://facebook.com/username/. (By the way, that’ll also be an email address soon, just so ya know).
Facebook Makes Search Engine Friendly Note URLs
Maybe they’ve been doing this for awhile, but it’s the first time I noticed it.
facebook.com/notes/navarr-barnier/she-knows-my-best-and-my-worst/222268802110
Notice how it has my name, the note title, and then the ID at the end? By the way, that ID is the only thing Facebook cares about in the entire URL. This exact same link works and points to the exact same note:
facebook.com/notes/good-day-sir/i-am-a-homosexual/222268802110
Just thought it was interesting, and I hadn’t seen it mentioned anywhere before. So I thought I’d take a moment to point it out. It’s probably good information for brands who are trying to get their Facebook Pages indexed by Google, they can customize the URL to their notes however they want to when they link to them from their websites (If any brand in the entire world does this, anyway).
Help Make Facebook Better For Him
I saw this pop up on my Facebook homepage and couldn’t help but laugh. This is definitely one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
It’s Facebook’s Turn to Scratch OUR Back
Quite possibly one of the largest and most influential things pulling users to Facebook has always been the application platform. It’s simple, it’s intuitive, and developers are doing everything they can to make money off the platform, including advertisements and resorting to sleazy scams like Offerpal and SuperRewards, all the while paying Facebook more and more money for advertising that, most of the time appears on other application’s sidebar.
Why has it taken us Developers this long to realize it? Facebook is making a profit off of our applications and giving us absolutely nothing in return. Not only are developers paying Facebook to get more users, but we’re giving them free advertising space and revenue. It’s obviously time that Facebook started scratching the developer’s back by giving them some of the revenue off the advertisements that appear on their own application pages! This would offer application developers a clean, non-scammy, non-shoddy revenue stream with advertisements that would always fit with the Facebook platform policy, without even disrupting the feel of the application.
Facebook is constantly complaining about the scammy and shoddy methods developers implement to try to make their application more viral to manage some form of income, but if Facebook just paid developers a percentage for the advertisements being placed on those same developer’s applications, than the entire Facebook experience would be cleaner and much more appealing to the end user.
Why hasn’t anyone thought of this before?
New Facebook Layout Screenshots (EXCLUSIVE)
So, I got those screenshots I was telling you about yesterday.
A picture is worth a thousand words. As for four, that depends on if each single picture is worth a thousand words or the algorithm for how much a multitude of pictures together are worth.
Facebook Navigational Changes
I observed today on the Facebook account of a person close to me, some changes that had been made to the site that really stood out and grabbed my attention. Upon review, these changes are not currently in affect on my own version of the Facebook page, and have not yet been reported by any of the major Facebook blogs, so I will post some reports on what I saw here.
The header is a bit bigger, and the notification icon has been moved up to it, possibly the application icon as well but I did not take a close look. I think there was also a message icon to display the unread count of the inbox.
Assuming this wasn’t an error, (or that it was and it isn’t fixed by tomorrow) I should be able to present you with screenshots.
Otherwise, please be on the lookout for these changes, and if you notice them yourself, please upload a screenshot to some site and link to it from here.
I hope to bring you continued coverage of these changes as they unfold.
Was it Google or Facebook?
Personally, I’m not sure, but either way there is a bunch of wonderful news to share with everyone.
Around the release of Google Chrome v0.4.154.22 (Dev Channel) something magical began to happen; I stopped having JavaScript problems on Facebook.
All of MouseHunt started to work again, the bookmarks worked on every page, the chat worked on every page. It was pure, unadulterated magic.
What I can’t yet figure out though, is if it was Facebook’s doing, or if it was Google’s. Does anyone else know?
Digsby adds Facebook Chat
They've done it now. Digsby is the first IM client (that I'm aware of) to add Facebook chat to their client. Now, we all know that Facebook chat is readily accessible on the website from all the popular web browsers, but it really is a wonderful direction for Digsby to continue moving in.