Facebook's most annoying changes
Facebook's many changes have irritated users through the years, and more are coming today.
News of big changes to Facebook's News Feed are already making many users sigh and roll their eyes. There have been a lot of changes to the world's largest social network in recent years. Here are some of the most annoying:
News of big changes to Facebook's News Feed are already making many users sigh and roll their eyes. There have been a lot of changes to the world's largest social network in recent years. Here are some of the most annoying:
The News Feed -- Facebook unveiled the News Feed in 2006 as a way to view the activities of your friends. Many users wanted out, although Facebook pacified them with new privacy features to control what is displayed.
The New Facebook -- In late 2008, Facebook permanently moved users to a complete layout redesign it called "Facebook 3.0." Several groups formed to protest the decision.
Public Friends Lists -- As part of the much-maligned privacy changes in 2009, Facebook made the friends lists of all users public, sparking such an outcry that the site quickly reinstated the option to keep the lists private.
Terms Of Use Changes -- In February 2009, Facebook made unannounced changes to its terms of use giving it the rights to a user's content even after it's been deleted. Outrage ensued, and Facebook soon returned to its original terms of use.
News Feed Redesign -- In October 2009, Facebook revamped the News Feed to include more of your friends' activities. But users couldn't select what they saw, and many didn't like the amount of information coming at them.
News Ticker -- As part of sweeping changes rolled out in September 2011, a real-time news ticker was added to the right side of the homepage, letting you know what your friends were posting and commenting on as it happened. Some thought it too busy, and you now have the option to hide the ticker.
Top Stories vs. Recent Stories -- More changes to the News Feed introduced a focus on "top stories" rather than recent items. Users who don't visit much will only see top stories, while frequent visitors get the option to expand to recent posts.
Subscribe Button -- This feature allows users to subscribe to other users’ news feeds without friending them, much like Twitter. Some users didn't like the idea of people they didn't know following them.
Timeline -- Perhaps one of the most controversial changes to date is Facebook's Timeline, a profile page change initially rolled out as an option but that has now become mandatory.
Facebook.com Email -- Facebook has offered its own email address for a while now, but users were irked in June 2012 when the site replaced the email addresses they chose to list on their profile page with the facebook.com address.
