“Friends account deleted, Limited in sending message or poking, stupid new layout ! Administrators don’t care about what we think ! But what will happen if we all decide to stay off of facebook for 1 day !”

On July 21, Facebook rolled out a redesign of the site, based on feedback from 100,000 users (The Facebook Blog). The redesign was aimed at making it easier for users to access the content they want most while improving site speed. Among the most visible changes was the categorical division of a user’s Profile page into tabbed pages, as opposed to having every type of media an individual uses on the site awkwardly laid out on one page.

The new design was immediately hit by a backlash of users who were surprised by the extent of the changes. Two of the redesign protest groups on Facebook currently have nearly 4.5 million members collectively. Among other complaints are that the privacy settings are not clear or strict enough, so that a user’s information may be shared with unknown parties without the user’s knowledge.

It is unclear at this time whether Facebook will make any changes due to the boycott. However, an exchange on Yahoo! Answers suggests that the protest is having an impact.

A second protest event on Facebook is scheduled for January 9 through January 12, 2009.

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