Facebook gets birthday redesign

Facebook has another re-jig
Facebook has another re-jig

Facebook has announced a birthday redesign, which is meant to "help you find what you are looking for on Facebook".

This isn't a completely new design, so there shouldn't be any of the backlash the social-networking site came under after it's last change but a few things have been tweaked. Oh, and it just so happens to coincide with Facebook's sixth birthday this week.

These include:

  • In the top menu, you will find your newest notifications, requests and messages
  • The left menu has been organized to make it easier for you to communicate with and discover content from your friends
  • It's easier for you to find and interact with applications and discover new ones, with the new Applications and Games dashboards, accessible via the 'Applications' and 'Games' links on the home page
  • You can now also bookmark your favourite applications using the 'Add Bookmark' button in an application

Sharing enriches

It sounds like applications will play a significant part in Facebook in the future, with the blog post noting that: "We think sharing information about the applications you use enriches the shared experience between you and your friends.

"At the same time, we feel strongly that control is an important element of any information sharing on Facebook. That's why these features are launching with an entirely new privacy setting."

So, anyone using Farmville, please for the love of our sanity – keep it private.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.