Facebook has decided to change everything again. This time definitely not for the better. They have decided to get rid of “Facebook Pages” and make them all look like profiles. This is a huge mistake and will prove to anger a lot of people.
From the Facebook Blog:
“Starting today, we are announcing new profiles for public figures and organizations. Once called Pages, these new profiles will now begin looking and functioning just like user profiles. Just as you connect with friends on Facebook, you can now connect and communicate with celebrities, musicians, politicians and organizations. These folks will now be able to share status updates, videos, photos or anything else they want, in the same way your friends can already. You’ll be able to keep up with all of their activity in your News Feed. This means that you can find out that Oprah is reading a book backstage before a show, CNN posted a breaking story or U2 is working on a new song, just as you would see that your friend uploaded new photos from her trip to Europe.”
Ok, sounds grand if you really need that kind of connectivity. What they don’t mention is that all pages will be dumped into the new format whether you want it to or not. The idea of a “Public Profile” is a good idea. Allowing companies/organizations/etc. to set up a profile might be good for many. The fact is companies are already doing this. But, the real problem is that FB wants to get rid of “Facebook Pages” as they are now. What does that mean? For starters there will be no distinction between a personal profiles and organizations. Many organizations/companies use Facebook pages to broaden there reach and interact with their clients. The high customization that is available on the pages is also a great way to match the page with their brand and products bringing them to clients in a medium that they comfortable with. Furthermore, for most of the companies using the pages, the “Wall” is far from being the primary tool they use for interaction. Converting all pages to profiles forces the “Wall” to be the focus of attention, and most do not need constant updates and a feed of what is happening. Now visitors will have to click around on the tabs to find what they want. From what I understand as well they will be dropping the FBML blocks, which kills the ability to customize. I have already seen some pages that have been broken by this.
Bottom line is: Give people a choice. By dumping “Facebook Pages†for the new profile format, ruins one of the great things about Facebook and alienates many people that were very happy with the pages. Plus, it looks very much like MySpace. There’s a reason people choose to use Facebook over MySpace.
So, all of you that are using Facebook Pages and would like to continue this, should go to the following page and voice your opinion:
Facebook Pages / Public Profiles’s Notes
Or the go to the Facebook Blog and leave a comment.
Let Facebook know that you don’t want the change.
Facebook, PLEASE rethink this like you did the new terms and conditions. You will only be hurting yourself in the end if you decide to go through with this.
