When I logged onto Facebook today to check my usual set of messages, posts & gossip; I noticed a very interesting link at the very top left. It said “The new Facebook is here Try it now”. Being the insanely curiously type, I clicked “Try it now” and found my online social life change instantly.

There have been several rumors of plans to give a face lift to Facebook but what I experienced leaves face lifts far behind and places FB on a whole new level. Facebook has not only set a new standard but exceeded all my expectations of what social networking site can become in such a short time span.

The wide layout and additional tabs have made the content area a lot more user-friendly and made my profile a whole lot easier to manage with less scrolling.

Several interesting facts:

* Can add new tabs to include any new areas that I might want within easy access
* Edit text/icons are available for any section of the profile
* Loads a lot faster than the previous version
* A lot less scrolling to get to the required sections (e.g. Funwall, Testimonials, etc) – now they are available under Boxes

All-in-all, I really like this new face of the future and looking forward to more.

In a turn of events by Facebook to appeal to the greater mass of people, they have removed the Networks tab from within the top navigation. Apparently, they didn’t do the job right and kept some trailing trash to clean-up later. I was still able to click on edit (between the Profile & Friends buttons) and then go to Networks and change or add a new Network to my preference.

I could even go to the friends tab, click on All Friends and who ever that was already part of the old networks still showed up. I personally preferred the Networks since it created a geographical segmentation that would otherwise be out of control with every tom-dick-and-harry creating a group for whatever they liked. This is the same reason I left Hi5 and several other Social Networking sites.

What is happening to Facebook you might ask? Well… I can’t give you a good answer for that right now but I suspect that if things go the way they are right now, FB is going to turn out just like Hi5 and all the other Social Networking sites that couldn’t survive the pressure from the people that are insecure about themselves online and FB will eventually loose a lot of members in the process.

This is in addition to the thousands and thousands that will also leave if ever Microsoft succeeds in the take-over of FB.

What are your thoughts on this? Feel free to share.

Facebook has over the years fascinated me with the rate at which it continues to grow. Ever since joining the bandwagon over a year ago, I have come to think of FB as a part of my life… something that keeps me in touch with all my friends over the years and also serve as a platform to meet new people. Yesterday, I touched on 250 friends, how I manage to know so many people — I honestly don’t know!

I log into FB and several of my other important sites on a daily basis before I start my day. I love the fact that everything on the home page shows up for easy access but sometimes I wish there were less to look at.

Some of the FB applications I might add today would be removed permanently in a few days time simply because they sent me too many notifications or I didn’t like the color of the background in sync with my mood on that day. As of this post, I managed to remove over 50% of the applications I had. I hope to keep the rest until such time I get bored and start removing them as well.

One of my favorite FB applications though happen to be Nations, its about building your own Nation bit-by-bit while resolving issues that come from time-to-time from your citizens.

To visit my Facebook Profile, click here.