In an effort to de-clutter the social networking site, Facebook decided it would be best to make photos the center of the world with a new look.

Unlike previous speculations that Facebook would be plastering bigger ads on its site, it’s quite surprising that the improvements actually center on people’s stories and activities. It is often said that pictures convey more stories than actual words, and this might have been what its design team had in mind with the social network update.

New Feed organization

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The new look comes with new feeds: All Friends which shows users everything their friends are sharing; Photos which, as the name implies, is all about photos, photos, and photos from your Facebook friends and the Pages you like; Music which shows post about the tunes you listen to; and Following which shows feeds of the latest news from Pages you like and people you follow.

The good thing about this is that it’s more organized.  It will be easier for users to filter content they want to see, and stay up to date with the latest happenings.  Also, the new look will be streamlined across all platforms, from web to smartphone and even tablets.

“With the new design, now Facebook has the same look and feel on mobile, tablet and web. For example, the left-hand menu is accessible anywhere you go on Facebook. You also have a way to jump right to the top of News Feed whenever new stories come in,” Facebook announced on its page.

The new look will be slowly rolled out across the various platforms but if you want to be one of the first to get the look, click here to join the waiting list.

Google+ copycat?

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When Google launched Google+, many poked fun of it calling it a Facebook copycat.  Strangely, though the new Facebook look seems fresh, it’s not new.  Everyone who has a Google+ account will notice the strong resemblance.  The bar on the left side, the one with all the thumbnails and all, resembles the same sidebar on Google+.  Then on the right side you’ll see the other stuff.

“Proud to see +Mark Zuckerberg promote G+,” quipped Urs Hölzle, SVP of technical infrastructure at Google, in a Google+ post. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!”

Ads taken for granted?

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Not really.  Though previous reports stated that ads would be more visible on Facebook, its executives claimed that there would be no immediate change in the number of ads seen on a user’s News Feed, but advertisers see this as a huge opportunity for consumer engagement.

“This will result in more time spent over all on the Facebook News Feed — and of course, increase engagement with content and ads,” said Hussein Fazal, chief executive of AdParlor, which buys advertisements on Facebook on behalf of several brands.

It will be weeks to months before more people start seeing the changes in Facebook.  Will people be excited to try it out?  Will people love the “new” Facebook?  Will this drive more users away?  Or will this encourage inactive users to come back and stay?  We’ll know more as the the update rolls out to more users.