14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is ready to roll out the new profile pages, even if some of its users may not be. The revamped profile pages were introduced last year and were opt-in, to give people some time to adjust to them.
The strategy paid off for the New Twitter was introduced and, given the history of every other new feature and change on Facebook, a cautious approach was probably the best one.
Not that it mattered, with well over 500 million users and judging from past experience, it's clear that there will be people who will not like the new profiles which get rid of the tabs and emphasize photos, among other changes.
"Last month, we introduced the new profile, which now makes it even easier for you to tell your story and learn about your friends," Facebook software engineer Philip Rha wrote.
"For the month of December, we gave people the option to upgrade to the new profile early, and hundreds of millions of you made the switch. Starting today, we'll be rolling out the new profile to everyone," he announced.
The new profile pages aren't exactly revolutionary but most of the changes make sense. At the very top of the page, the most relevant bio data is highlighted creating a short narrative rather than just listing facts.
A number of recent photos follow, the top section does a great job of providing the info most people would be looking for when browsing someone else's profile at a glance.
You have the options to remove the photos you don't like from the profile page as well as list only the interests you want displayed. The navigation links, Wall, Info, Photos and so on, have been moved to the left sidebar as Facebook continues to remove the tabs that used to be present on almost all pages.
The new profile page should be going live for everyone in the next couple of days. Facebook says hundreds of million of users had already begun using it, but it remains to be seen if the slow roll out will to anything to appease the small but loud groups of people that would object to any change.