PALO ALTO, Calif. — Popular social networking site Facebook.com has unveiled an updated, streamlined interface that links feed technology with user forums.
The revamped interface, currently in beta testing, is expected to become the default soon.
The biggest visual change for users is on the homepage. A combination of status updates, wall posts and news feed items are now featured in one content stream. On the profile page status updates and other mini-feed items are also combined, and users are shown a big text box at the top encouraging them to update their status.
The site this week also will launch their Facebook Connect product. It will allow users to “connect” their Facebook identity, friends and privacy to any website. Third-party websites will be able to implement and offer more features of the Facebook Platform off of Facebook — the same features available to third-party applications today on Facebook.
Additional changes to the site are expected to be announced Wednesday during the second of a series of developer conferences.
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook when he attended Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Ivy League. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, later, to anyone aged 13 and over.