is showing signs of looking more and more like Facebook which was looking more and more like Twitter. I was on my profile earlier and all was normal however tonight I jump over and it looked different. I immediately log out to see if maybe I changed the look of it somehow and upon logging a back in, it is different. While the changes do not appear to be too drastic, there are few that stand out.
1. Home Page. The entire bar on the left side has been removed. The top showcased your groups for easy access (now to access, you have to use the drop down menu at the top), the bottom had your own profile information. This bar being eliminated gives the page that Facebook-esque look as it is photo, status and the “show more” is similar to the news feed.
2. Advertising. The ads on the right side are bigger which changes location of your applications with many now below the fold.
3. Groups. Under each group menu bar are Start a Discussion, Submit News and Share Group tabs. These are useful when adding information to the News feed.
4. Groups/People I am Following. Another feature on each Group page is the discussions by each person in that group that you are following, located on the right side. This also also a See all updates tab that opens into a new window to see more updates. This is limited to the people you are connected to.
5. “Follow” There is a New button that says Follow (person’s name) but it for me it is not working. It appears that if you follow someone you can share information across the groups you share. Will update if I can get this to work.
This is all that I can see thus far or remember that is different
Will the Groups/People I am Following nudge people to connect with more people in their groups? Connections are still permission based however you can request the connection if you are in a group together. These changes make the page look very similar to Facebook which as we recall changed to look a lot like Twitter. Is a microblogging layout the new wave for the social media networking sites?
Did I miss anything? Does everyone’s look different? I tried to find research on this and after about half hour I gave up as I did not find anything.
photo credit: Mario Sundar