NEW FACEBOOK HOMEPAGE TAKES TWITTER COMPETITION UP A NOTCH

A few months ago, the talk of the town was Facebook’s interest in acquiring Twitter. It didn’t happen.  So as the cliché saying goes, “if you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em.” Ok, so maybe that’s not how it goes, but it seems that’s exactly what Facebook is attempting to do with their recently announced changes.

One of the more notable changes is to the homepage, which will now feature a real-time stream of content, as opposed to the old news feed which was only updated about every 10-mintues or so. Users will be able to easily post status updates, notes, images, or videos right from their homepage, via the “What’s on your mind?” box, instead of having to go into each individual application. When you do utilize this box, your information will be posted to your profile and the homepage of all of your friends.

However, unlike Twitter, this live stream can easily be sorted by groups, or application type, so users will be able to view content just from any subset of friends like family or coworkers from the homepage. Additionally, there’s a “highlights” section to the side which displays the most popular content among your friends.

Also announced today was the transition of pages to profiles, which will enable users to communicate with celebrities, politicians, and organizations as they would any other friend. The 5,000 maximum friend limit was also dropped, making Facebook another attractive option for celebrities and brands who have been turning to Twitter to connect with fans and consumers.

We, here at MGH WOM, give major props to Facebook for constantly re-inventing themselves in order to keep up with the competition and more importantly, to keep up with the ever-evolving way we communicate. Just over four years ago, Facebook was little more then an online directory. Now, it’s quickly becoming the “go-to” spot to connect and share all types of information with friends. Bravo, Facebook, Bravo.