For now, users can choose the new configuration or keep to the old one

Jul 21, 2008 07:53 GMT  ·  By

Facebook has released a new design in order to make the management of the webpage easier, as well as to allow users to upload more content to their personal pages. The Wall is probably the most interesting feature the team from Facebook made available. Designed as a forum, it allows users to upload photos, videos and content from third-party applications. Furthermore, users' friends can leave comments related to the content, which makes the Wall a facilitator of communication between members of the network.

The main categories of the top menu remain Profile, Friends and Inbox. The novelty is that the profile information is split into tabs. The Wall is enclosed by the Info tab, which displays the most stable items of information, the ones that the user doesn't modify on a regular basis. The Photos tab shows the user's personal albums. The Boxes tab contains all the applications from someone's profile. The favorite applications can be inserted in an individual tab, by choice, in order to make them more accessible for the user and his friends.

The stories that a user can publish on his profile can now be singled out into the one-line or one-sentence long stories, short stories, to include written content or thumbnail pictures and full stories, which allow large texts and images. The external applications, namely those uploaded from third-party sources, will be available before adding them to the users' profiles, as people will have the possibility to test them in advance.

"We've made the changes rolling out today in order to highlight the most recent and relevant information that users value, give users even more control and ownership over their profiles and simplify the user experience," said Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He also said that, for the next couple of weeks, both these versions would be available to users. After that period, the new design and features will be applied automatically every time someone signs in.