I could still feel the warm fuzzies from Zuckerberg’s note when I logged into Facebook and the top post in my newsfeed crapped all over my kumbaya – “I’ve had the new facebook layout for all of 45 minutes and already my fb chat reliability has gone down 90%. F*&$ you Facebook.”

Ah bless, the resistance has begun. But it’s really no surprise; it’s been a tumultuous relationship over the past 6 years…

September 2006 – The News Feed
The News Feed feature was introduced to help users filter through the noise to see the newest, most relevant actions and updates from their friends. However, users felt as though their dirty laundry was being broadcast without their permission and immediately formed groups and petitions in protest.

Response: Zuckerberg posted an open letter on the Facebook blog that began, “We really messed this one up….”

 

November 2007 – Beacon
Beacon, Facebook’s new social ad system tracked users’ activities, registration and purchases on partner websites and published them to their profiles. Once again feeling as though their privacy had been compromised, users were furious and MoveOn.org, an advocacy group, started a full-scale campaign against Beacon. Facebook and a number of Beacon affiliates were later named in class-action lawsuits over the ordeal.

Response: Zuckerberg again apologised, saying “We’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them. We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.”

 

September 2008 – The Profile Redesign
Almost 2 million angry and confused Facebookers joined groups and signed petitions when all users were forced to adopt the redesign, which changed the layout of personal Profiles from a box-like structure to the Wall and tabs structure. Common complaints were that it was more difficult to find profile information and add photos and looked ‘too much like MySpace.’

 

Response: Zuckerberg’s initial response was a blog post thanking everyone for their patience and support throughout the evolution, but it did little to placate angry users. The following day Facebook added Pirate to the site’s language translations (in honour of International Talk Like A Pirate Day) – for a few brief moments, all was forgotten.

 

February 2009 – Terms of Service
Facebook didn’t tell anyone when they changed the ToS to retain “irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license” even after content is deleted. This made users mad.

Response: Over several posts Facebook tried to clarify that users do own and control their own content. Shortly after, the ‘Terms of Service’ was canned in lieu of the more democratic sounding ‘Statement of Rights and Responsibilities’.

 

March 2009 – Pages Redesign; Homepage Redesign (Stream + Publisher + Filters)
Brands that had invested in design and creative probably weren’t happy when the layout of Pages suddenly changed to mirror Profiles’ tabbed design, but corporate protocol didn’t allow them to throw much of a stink.

Users on the other hand were vocal about their dislike of the homepage redesign and the disappearance of the iconic “Kristen is … ” prefix for status updates. They created groups and posted angry comments – a handful of the more salient ones were chronicled by the NYTimes Gadgetwise Blog:

• “I hate the ’share’ button. It’s so California.”
• “The images in the status feeds have rounded edges.”
• “Your OWN pic appears every time you post an article on your wall.”

 

December 2009: Privacy Controls
When Facebook adjusted privacy controls, it first appeared to be done in users’ best interest. However, savvy users were skeptical – and for good reason – as the default on some personal information was viewable by everyone. But this backlash spanned beyond the usual outcropping of harsh words, petitions and Facebook groups – this time the U.S. Federal Trade Commission was summoned.

 

Response: Facebook changed a few things in response to complaints; Zuckerberg set out to show the Internets that it’s okay to share things about yourself by sharing some of himself with us…

He’s a fan of Taylor Swift and proud of it.

One time he and the gf had a lightsaber duel in the office!

And you know what, even the youngest self-made billionaire needs a tender moment with his teddy bear every now and again.

 

 

February 2010 – Present Day
Facebook turned 6 and got another facelift; users are predictably angry.

 

So what can we take away from examining the trials and tribulations of our 6 year relationship? A few of my observations:

Facebook has and will continue to tread through new territory in terms of privacy, data collection and revenue models for a community of over 400 million people. They will misstep and make mistakes. They might not always have our best interests at heart, but they certainly don’t want to seriously piss anyone off… or get sued.

Facebook users are incredibly irritable and averse to change. We generally can’t identify what we want, but we sure know it when given something we don’t want (although we then sometimes later learn that we actually did want it but didn’t even realise.) This probably won’t improve as seniors and baby boomers continue to join Facebook at an alarming rate.

 

 

And with all that said, I think it’s time to pour myself a drink. Cheers to you, Zuck, it’s been quite a ride.