14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook is once again revamping the look of the photos section. This time around, it's the albums that get the update, instead of small thumbnails and a list of albums you'll now see a wall of photos from all of your albums or from other places on the site.
"Today we’re announcing improvements to the photos section that make viewing photos more enjoyable," Facebook wrote.
"Now when you click Photos at the top of your timeline, you’ll see larger pictures that fill up the page. You can use the menu to find shots you’re tagged in, pictures you’ve shared and albums you’ve created," Facebook explained.
"With your Facebook photos all in one section, it’s simple to show friends your favorites. Click the star button to make important photos stand out," it added.
The new look fits well with the Facebook Timeline, there are quite a few similar design cues. Another thing that it borrows from the Timeline is the ability to edit photo details on the fly. This means you can, for example, star or comment on any photo just by hovering over it.
You can also highlight your favorite photos, like you can with Timeline entries, to have them fill up the page more.
The thumbnails are laid out to fill as much space as possible with the actual photos rather than just filling. Some thumbnails stand out, since they're four times larger. The look is very similar to plenty of other sites, Google+ notably, but it's a welcomed one and a much needed upgrade.
Unlike Google+ though, Facebook crops all the photos into square thumbnails, which it then displays in a row. Google uses an algorithm it picked up from Image Search to reorder the photos to have their thumbnails fill all of the space available while retaining their original aspect ratio. However, this detail will probably matter most to photographers. Given the previous way Facebook handled this - small thumbnails with a fixed 4:3 ratio, it's an upgrade any way you look at it.