Facebook’s 2011 f8 developer conference was jam-packed with news. The biggest announcement was the new Timeline feature, which will be replacing your current Facebook profile in the next few weeks.
As with almost any new Facebook announcement, this one caused a huge uproar in the media. Many complained about the upcoming revamp simply because it meant change. Others pointed out the potential privacy concerns. Some even claimed they would ditch Facebook forever for Google+.
I will be the first to agree that the upcoming changes are controversial. While there are many who don’t like them, it appears there is also a much less vocal group of users who really appreciate what Facebook announced.
The first two comments on Facebook’s Timeline blog post announcement are very telling of how split Facebook users are about the social network making changes. Here’s the first one, by Harmoni Lucio: “shut the eff up and bring the old facebook back.” It received over 2,000 Likes. Here’s the first reply to it, by Zac McDonough: “the old facebook was the new facebook once. the world changes, get used to it.” It received over 3,000 Likes.
Facebook’s own Facebook Page saw an increase of over 400,000 Likes in the last week alone, more than any other Facebook Page. It now has over 53 million Likes, keeping it in first place. That’s still a far cry from the service’s 800 million active users but something tells me it’s still a bit more than the number of users blindly criticizing the company for trying to innovate.
See also:
- Watch it live: Facebook 2011 f8 developer conference
- How to get the Facebook Timeline (officially and unofficially)
- Facebook has just 17 Open Graph launch partners
- A closer look at the Facebook Timeline and the Open Graph
- Screenshots: the Facebook Timeline and the Open Graph
- Facebook’s 2011 f8 event: what impressed me the most
