Since earlier this year, we have known that Facebook Pages (like profiles, but for brands and businesses), were going to be going through a redesign, the most significant of which was going to be the narrowing of the content area for application tabs. Facebook had announced the intent to reduce the size of tabs from the current, generous 760 pixels to a bit tighter 520 pixels – about a 31% reduction. What we haven’t been sure about, though, was when, and the result of this uncertainty was the need to design for both the 760- and 520-pixel profiles.
Word on the street, however, is that the change should be taking place by the end of August, and while I might say tongue-in-cheek that they’ve been planning this change since the beginning of the year, I think they mean it this time.
Also happening very soon is the removal of the beloved profile boxes. According to the Platform Live Status, effective the first week of August, users’ abilities to add Profile Boxes to their profiles will be terminated. Shortly after that (no specific time frame is currently given), Facebook will remove users’ ability to see them, leaving the only ways for applications to present custom content within a profile as publishing to a stream, or installing application tabs.
Ostensibly, the purpose of these changes is twofold. Users can have a significantly more interactive experience with applications than they can with profile boxes, as profile boxes can’t really go back and forth with AJAX requests. They also can’t be updated dynamically; I used an app called InstaMapper GPS Tracker on my Android phone, and it was neat in that it could auto-publish my latest map onto my profile. However, when I changed from my G1 to a Nexus One, I didn’t update my device information on my Facebook profile. Consequently, since the data hasn’t been updated in more than three months, the image has expired, and they couldn’t update it (because it’s not generated whenever I view it – it was generated when I last used the app back in April).
The other purpose behind this is to increase advertising space. I think along with the change, we’ll probably see a more compelling design around the implementation of the tabs, for instance (though any specifics on this haven’t been announced).
My hope is that they’ll also make it clear for developers about specifically when the change will be made, and then give us a timed opt-in ability (like they currently have given with the “New SDKs” components). If we remember back to the big 2008 Facebook design change, too, new Facebook applications still even get the “in-the-new-Facebook” parameter on requests, letting applications know that they should be using the “new” standard UI. A parameter like that would help us to be able to be responsive to the change, even if we need to design and cut twice.
Like always with Facebook: we know change is imminent. We see its shadow on the horizon.
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This is good to know, Scott. I have a few clients that have been requesting custom tab pages through the static FBML app and we’ve all been sitting on our hands trying to figure out if this change will ever happen or not. Last I read it was supposed to happen right about now (end of July). I believe the blog I read it on was relatively old and I didn’t know if this something FB decided to hold off on.
Thanks for the heads up!