Yesterday afternoon many of may have noticed that Facebook went down for a short time. What you may not have seen however was Facebook’s accidental revealing of some of their new features. The features weren’t active for very long but many people, including us, had an opportunity to see the new features for a short time before Facebook went down.
After all of this took place yesterday afternoon Facebook tweeted “Also, some internal prototypes were exposed to people and resulted in us disabling the site briefly. It’s now back to normal.”
Below are a few of the new features that we were able to see and also have since read about for other various sources. If there are any features that you were able to experience yesterday please tell us about them in comment feed. Enjoy!
Facebook Pages
One of the biggest changes seen yesterday was the new layout for Facebook Pages. Instead of the tabbed navigation at the top of the page the menu had moved to the left column underneath the profile picture. This of course resembles the look of Facebook Places as well as the new profile layouts.
Another useful feature for many page admins that was seen is the Questions / Poll feature which will allow pages to run polls directly through Facebook as opposed to using comment feeds, third party applications or links back to your website. One change that people were unhappy with was the default landing tab setting for non-fans was gone. We believe however that this feature will still be available once the new Pages go live.
Page admins also had an option to “Switch Accounts” and “Login as Page”. The “Login as Page” option raises many questions for us such as whether or not this the page admins will finally be notified of new comments and likes as opposed to manually checking the page. We also wonder if page admins will have the ability to Message individuals as the page. These of course are just speculation but worth keeping in mind.
A Facebook spokesperson also stated that page admins were notified of the changes before they take effect. This is very comforting considering the time, money and energy businesses put into Facebook as part of their marketing and communication plan. All of us at A2Z Computer Services, Inc. personally cannot wait for that announcement to come out.
Pages weren’t the only ones to get a sneak peak at the new changes that will be coming to Facebook. Personal profiles saw new features such as Memories which will allow users to go back and photos, statuses and new friends grouped by years. The much anticipated lightbox UI for Facebook Photos was also seen and enjoyed by many for a short time.
What features are you either looking forward to or dreading the most?