Facebook changed its looks. The new design was launched at PALO ALTO CA on 20th July. Keeping it in beta and testing phase the user have options to either switch to the new design or keep the current one. Though facebook haven’t made any functional changes so this revamp can only be labeled as a design change rather then a version 2 of facebook.

According to facebook the new design took about an year in making. During which many public opinions was taken in ground.

Face book face uplift bring the following enhancements

• The feed technology has been enhanced .Content from indirect contacts can be written on the user wall. The user wall now portrays more recent images and stories related to the user
• The stories now include add on features. The types of stories include short stories, long stories and one liner. User can customize their stories according to their suitability. This includes story content and appearance.
• The content limits have been enhanced with the help of publisher. Users can manage videos, images and text all in one place instead of individual applications. A user can also design content on the profile of any of his contacts through his profile.
• The navigation menus have been improved. Individual menus have been designed for user information, photos, boxes and the wall, for each user.
• Users have been provided rights to accept or reject a particular design. Each user can use a particular application and decide whether he wants a particular application on his profile.
• The security features have been enhanced. Users can restrict the viewing of all their content including photos and videos .They can allow particular users to view their content as well as restrict the ones they want.

Why did facebook change its design?

Although Mark Zuckerberg wrote a complete letter stating the three goals which they wanted to achived by the new layout :

We had three goals to improve Facebook in this version. First, we wanted to make everything clean and simple to use. Reducing clutter makes it easier for you to find what you’re looking for and share information with others. Second, we wanted to give you more control over your profile. Everyone should be able to express themselves how they want, which means privacy controls and control over how content appears on your profile. Lastly, we wanted to show the most recent and relevant content. People share so much on Facebook that it’s easier to keep up with your friends by focusing on the newest and most important information

But the real reason for a new layout design for facebook might be a little different. One of the biggest flaw with the previous version of facebook was very small adspot size. The only size facebook could sell was 110px by 80px box which didn’t made much use for advertisers. But the new layout brings new spots for ads and my prediction the first one is going to be 300px by 300px for the main page and a 200px by 200px for the profile page.

Source [ Facebook Press Release ]

After a while i received a notification email from orkut, though thinking the orkut community is dead so the email did get my attention as it stated that a friend of mine poked me! For a moment i though “WHAT” this kind of emails are suppose to come from facebook but to my reconfirmation it was from orkut and it did say that a friend of mine poked me.

So i logged on to orkut to see what really happened and how could some one from orkut poke me! Once i entered the orkut word allot had changed and made me immediately comfortable as there was allot of similarity of what the new orkut had offered with an application that i had been using before. So i decided to write a review on how the orkut has improved and brought in BRAND new services to its social networking site.

1- Support for Applications >
Add applications and customize your profile with music, games, and more! a new feature by Orkut. Facebook allows its users to ad and customize applications along with privacy settings for the applications.

2- Notifications >
Facebook sends notifications when ever actions are taken …… Orkut sends you notifications via eMail, message ….

3- News Feed - Updates from Friends
Now orkut offers updates from friends see which of your friends added new applications, updated there image gallery and with facebook you get all the notices in the form of mini feeds on your landing page.

4- Privacy Features >
Orkut has now introduced privacy settings,that allows you to be as public or private with your information as you wish. With facebook’s privacy you Control who can see your profile and related information.

Google has come up with a very ambitious project named ‘Friend Connect‘. The Google Friend Connect lets you add social network features to your website with snippets of code from different websites into your own website. Seems more like web widgets which Google have named at ‘Friend Connect’.

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5 essential Firefox Addons for Social Networking
Why not bring your social network life into your browser, i have collected and organized a list of Firefox Ad Ons that will bring our favorite social networking life into our browser, it will add ease of use to access, modify and update with sites like facebook, twitter, digg, YouTube.

Social Networking Addons for Firefox
1- Facebook Extension for Firefox.
First Comes “Facebook” with an average of above 150 million user subscription, facebook has made its self the no1 social networking website. So the “Facebook toolbar for Firefox” is an essential.

Once installed the Facebook Toolbar brings your facebook life to your browser every time you open up the browser you are logged into facebook, you can search facebook, get notified of the pokes, friends requests and messages you receive. A pop-up will notify when friends update there status, write a note or interact with you on facebook. You can also open your friends sidebar, sort them and keep in touch with them. Apart from that if you run groups or a network on facebook you can share content directly from your browser what else do you need. (more…)