By Sharon Noguchi
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the latest changes to the popular social networking site Sunday night in his highest-profile public appearance to date, using an interview with Lesley Stahl of "60 Minutes" to describe a new look for users' profile pages.
In a wide-ranging interview, the tech industry's latest wunderkind also discussed the possibility of a Facebook IPO, his wealth, online privacy and his portrayal in "The Social Network," telling Stahl that he saw the movie with employees of his company.
Earlier Sunday on its blog, Facebook announced the profile-page changes, which emphasize photos and give users new ways to describe themselves.
However, the "60 Minutes" appearance gave Zuckerberg a chance to talk about them to a nationwide audience. The interview comes as the company and Zuckerberg find themselves an increasing object of public interest -- no surprise given Facebook's 500 million and counting users.
It is not clear that Facebook's users, who revolted against a previous change earlier this year, will welcome the redesign.
A poll by Mashable, an online social media guide, showed Facebook users split. Of the 2,400 people who had responded Sunday evening, about 29 percent said they loved it. About 16 percent said they hated it and 15 percent said they preferred the old version. The remainder said they liked certain features or were indifferent.
"I got really frustrated with it," said Kelly Olszewski, 21, of San Jose, after testing out the new profile page made available Sunday. "I really don't like it."
Her irritation was rooted in not immediately finding a way to tell whether the new layout altered her privacy settings -- they didn't -- and on the new prominence given to photos that other people posted on her page.
That latter feature is precisely what Facebook is trying to promote, given the popularity of photo postings on the service. Users of the site post about 100 million photos every day.
The privacy issue has dogged Facebook, which has been criticized by the Federal Trade Commission, members of Congress and privacy groups for automatically releasing too much information about users.
Besides spotlighting photos, the new layout adds other features, such as allowing users to list important people in their lives and to detail the history of their relationships with friends.
When Stahl asked Zuckerberg about privacy, he emphasized that the company does not sell user information. Stahl pointed out that outside companies do. The segment asserted that Facebook is becoming "an ever-growing inventory of your likes and interests."
One focus of work at the company is on melding social networks with search functions -- for instance, getting others' advice about purchases.
"When you can use products with your friends and your family and the people you care about, they tend to be more engaging," Zuckerberg said. "Products are just going to be remade to be social."
Dressed in a navy blue T-shirt and appearing intense yet considerably more relaxed that he did in an appearance on the program three years ago, Zuckerberg tried to downplay any tech war with Google, saying "there are all these areas where we just don't compete at all."
He revealed that he took his whole company to watch "The Social Network" -- a film that depicts him as a brilliant guy who betrays his friends to create Facebook.
He did not hate it. In fact, he said the movie got all his T-shirts right: "I think I actually own those T-shirts." In addition, he said, "They got the sandals right."
However, he said the film misrepresented the reason he created Facebook (not to get girls; at the time, he was already dating his current girlfriend) and his fight with Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. The Winklevosses were Zuckerberg's earlier partners, twins who said that they had an idea to create a social networking site at Harvard University, but that Zuckerberg stole the idea and sabotaged their project. The twins sued and settled out of court but have since appealed.
Zuckerberg said he did not work for the twins, and that the dispute "has never been a big deal to Facebook or its evolution."
And as for the multibillion-dollar question, Zuckerberg said the company might someday go public. But, he told Stahl, "A lot of people who I think build startups or companies think that selling the company or going public is this end point. Right, it's like you win when you go public. And that's just not how I see it."
Other than insights into Zuckerberg, the primary news from "60 Minutes" was about Facebook's makeover and new software being developed to improve cell phone access to its pages.
Analyst Ray Valdes of San Jose-based Gartner Inc. called the makeover "a much-needed tweaking and cleanup" contributing to a better user experience.
While the face-lift wasn't revolutionary, he said, combined with other recent changes -- consolidating messaging capabilities and enabling cell-phone users to search for discounts -- "it's a drumbeat of advances that allow Facebook to stay ahead of competitors." Meaning, primarily, Google.
For Olszewski, however, the latest change moves in the wrong direction. Having to monitor photos posted by others -- "tagging" in Facebook parlance -- is a time-consuming annoyance, she said.
"I'm a seriously casual Facebook person," she said. Now, to guard against others posting unwanted photos, "It's going to take a lot more work to maintain your page."
source: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_16786586?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1
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