Mark Zuckerberg can attentively bear a little circumspect smile on his face after a while. His company’s third quarter results have gratified the Wall-Street wolves and another one of his legal battles nearly come to an end. But the Zuck knows that loafing is not a privilege he can afford.
The wolves are already huffing and puffing at the door again, and one way or the other Facebook will probably have to endure more legal battles in the future. Facebook has to try new things, and new things it certainly tries.
New Timeline Design – Posts on the Left, Activity on the Right
One of the most important features of Facebook is undoubtedly its user’s profile page, the Timeline. Almost every user of the social network spends at least some quality time polishing and shining his/her Timeline, which will accurately reflect (and a bit boast) their virtual identity.
It appears that Facebook is recently piloting some subtle alteration to the Timeline pattern in order to present more organized profiles. The tested Timeline’s design arranges all the posts on the left column and all other activity boxes (“Recent Activity,” “Friends,” etc) on the right column. Have a look:
From what I’ve seen and impressed, this new Timeline is definitely easier to skim through when attempting to pry into others’ posts instead of flipping right-left left-right. Beneath the right column though, there’s a prominent open free space, but I have a strong feeling it will be allocated to ads if this new Timeline design will stick.
Non-Social Connection News Feed Ads
Facebook has confirmed on its third quarter earnings call that ads on the News are a very lucrative business. The company stated that on each given day roughly $4 million are being heaped from News Feed ads, most of it (about 75%) from the network’s over 600 million mobile users. It’s only reasonable then, to expect from the company to bolster furthermore this revenue stream.
Until now, Facebook only displayed to users News Feed ads of Pages they or their friends have Liked. Lately, Facebook is also testing News Feed ads of Pages the users have no social connection with, labeled as “Page You May Like.”
By engaging with not-socially-connected users directly in their News Feed, advertisers can reach to entirely new audiences. If Facebook won’t overly embellish users’ News Feed with those ads, it might actually turn out to be helpful- users will be able to discover “disconnected” Pages which relates to their interests.
Thank you for InsideFacebook for being inside Facebook (platonically speaking)!