Social networking site Facebook is in for a complete makeover. Come July, all user profiles will undergo a change. Currently, the page layout is such that each profile opens on a single page, often looking excessively messy and cramped due to the large number of applications added. The more the applications a user has added to his account, the more difficult it becomes to navigate and manage the page. Besides this, pages with many added applications take a longer time to load.

It was mainly to combat these two issues – a cluttered, unmanageable page and the slow loading time – that Facebook designers decided to completely revamp the profile page. The new profile page will be sub-divided into 4 tabs, one for ‘Feeds’ or recent activity of the user like uploads and wall posts, one for ‘Info’, i.e., basic, personal, education and work info, another tab for ‘Photos’ including tagged photos and uploaded albums and a fourth ‘Applications’ tab for external or third-party applications.

Facebook also plans on shifting the navigation for Applications to the top of the profile. A drop-down menu is also provided from which to select the application of choice. However this design is still under construction and might change by the time the site is re-launched.

Initially scheduled for an April launch, the new-look Facebook will now be launched in July, giving designers enough time to go through the feedback received from users as well as developers. “Launching in July gives us more time to make sure we release the best possible profile design to our users and developers” states Pete Bratach of Facebook in the company blog.

We can’t help wondering if these new changes will be wholly accepted by developers of external applications. Since  a separate tab entirely devoted to applications is being planned, this could perhaps hinder their use. Currently, applications added by users, are displayed on their profile pages itself, making them clearly visible to visitors. This visibility increases the chances for an application to be added to a friend’s profile. However, when the redesign takes place and applications are relegated to a separate tab, chances are that this tab may be entirely ignored. This may not go down too well with internet marketers that develop specific applications for Facebook users to help promote their products and services.

With this major change on the cards, Facebook will be hoping that the new design makes it a cleaner, user-friendly, easily navigable website.  However what’s left to be seen is whether the companies marketing themselves through this popular social networking site will continue to profit from it, even after the proposed revamp.

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