Facebook redesign streamlines, but takes some getting used to.

So you’re a rapidly growing social network that's set to overtake MySpace as the largest social network on Earth. What do you do to celebrate?

If you said “launch a complete redesign,” then you’d fit in great over at Facebook.

The social juggernaut unveiled its new design this week. If you have an account but haven’t been able to see the new look, try clicking on this link. For now, you can switch back if you don’t like it.

Most social media nerds like myself have pointed out that the new look is awfully similar to FriendFeed.com. FriendFeed helps you keep track of what your friends are doing on multiple sites — photos they’re sharing on Flickr, videos they’re posting on YouTube, new additions to their blogs, etc.

In addition, FriendFeed gives you one central place to comment on anything your friends posted. Impressed by someone’s new online photo? You can post a comment from FriendFeed instead of logging into a whole new site just say say “nice shot.”

FriendFeed is a great idea (there’s a similar service called Plaxo), but I’ve never really liked the way it works. Now that Facebook has muscled its way into the role, I’m actually kind of glad. Facebook is meant to be the hub of your online life, and the new design makes that a little easier.

But it’s also going to take some getting used to. The more I poke around Facebook, the more I realize that they’ve changed quite a bit more than seems obvious at first. For example, Facebook applications are now called “Boxes” in one section and “Bookmarks” in another, with good-old “Applications” still popping up too.

These kinds of quirks make me wonder when people talk about this being a facelift targeted at “aging users.”

For now, though, I’m going to hold off on any substantive critiqu e. The redesign is just getting off the ground, and I’m sure that a lot of the bugs and annoyances will be ironed out in the coming weeks.

What about you guys? Any thoughts so far?

Comments

[the girl Riot]

i hate it. hate hate. but it's 5:06pm and i get to leave. more on this hate tomorrow. i hope i get to choose to get stuck in "old" version.

[Andy Dunbar]

Yeah I keep finding new things with FB while I am on it. Dig the pics on your post, nice on the eyes. Um, sure your not working for them...

[Alan Wolk]

It's a bit dense, actually. Especially since I don't care to see the pictures of people I barely know and don't have to time to adjust my facebook setting so I won't see their pictures.

That said, the biggest adjustment is the whole left/right thing. It's like Facebook's suddenly in Hebrew or something.

And I hate FriendFeed too. (so there Scoble) - it's way too much informatoin to handle at once, and feels like a giant taunt "you don't have the time to read me!"