Article by George Norman

On 21 Oct 2009

When the popular social networking site introduced Facebook Groups, it meant to allow Facebook users to organize and talk about topics that interest them. But it seems that numerous users did not like the fact that Group activities were only displayed on the group page; they also did not like the fact that it was a bit hard to find out what was going on within the Facebook Group. Consequently these users asked Facebook this question: if I can be kept up-to-date on what my friends and connections are up to, why can’t I be better informed about what’s going on in my Facebook Group?

The development team behind the social networking site has responded to this user feedback by changing the design of Facebook Groups. The design change has been implemented at the start of the week and it is being rolled out gradually.


Software engineering team member with Facebook, Knot Pipatsrisawat, comments: “We're transforming Groups to make it easier for you to communicate with other members and create a smoother experience as you browse through Facebook. If you don't see the new design just yet, you will soon. We're currently testing it with a small percentage of people on the site and will roll it out to everyone in the coming days."

Two things have changed. The design of Facebook Groups now looks very much the same as Profiles and Pages. It has a Wall where all the recent activities are displayed; it also has a Publisher to allow group members to share content. The second thing that’s changed is related to the manner in which group activities were displayed. In the past, group activities appeared in the group, now they appear in your News Feed.

If you’re worried the News Feed will be flooded, Knot Pipatsrisawat explains how it all works: “To ensure that you get the most interesting and relevant content from groups you've joined, you only will see stories when one of your friends posts within a group rather than when all members post. For example, you now will see a story when your friend uploads photos from a recent party at your high school alumni group or when one of your friends posts a message on the Wall of your pick-up soccer group saying that there is a special game this week.”

And we close with a little trivia question: Do you know how many Facebook Groups are there? At the time of writing this, there were 45+ million groups on the social networking site.



Tags: Facebook, Facebook Groups, Feedback, Redesign

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