Facebook Responds to Redesign Backlash, Plans Tweaks

The Facebook generation has spoken! And Facebook is listening, apparently. Facing backlash from millions of users over their redesign (TechCrunch's poll found that 94 percent (!) gave it a thumbs down)  the site is planning a re-redesign to calm the storm. Christopher Cox, Facebook's director of product, wrote a post on Facebook's official blog explaining what they are working on based on user feedback, which mostly addressed Facebook's change of their previously tame home page for a Twitter-like, histrionic News Feed. These are the "the areas where we're focusing on improvements immediately and over the next several weeks," Mr. Cox wrote.

For starters, they plan on giving people more control over their News Feed stream. They will implement an option that will allow people to see updates automatically on their home page—like magic!—so they don't have to refresh. They are also digging up the photos tagged of your friends and putting them back into the stream, instead of quartering them off in that curious "Highlights" column. Speaking of the Highlights section, they are working on making it update more frequently and to show more content that users would like to see. "We've heard feedback that there is a lot of application content appearing in the stream," Mr. Cox added. "We will be giving you tools to control and reduce application content that your friends share into your stream." No more quizzes, please!

He continued:

Currently, the content filters on the left screen allow you to select the types of content you would like to see. Over time, we'll continue to give you more control over what's in your main stream and how you consume it. We have the eventual goal of building filters that summarize this activity so you can see a more condensed view of what's been going on. We're also thinking about ways of filtering out some of the Wall posts and content directed to specific people to focus more on posts shared with everyone.

In response to overcrowded home pages, designers are also hoping to get the more important stuff—like friend requests and event invites—front and center. There will also be an easier way for you to create friends lists and filter what they can see.

Although no official date has been set for the unveiling of these changes, Facebook will probably slowly roll out some tweaks over time and see how users react. We're hoping to see 'em go back to the good old days when there was what we like to call "more fam, less spam."