Facebook to discontinue Network Pages
This post was updated at 6:42 PM PDT with comment from Facebook.
Facebook plans to remove its Network Pages feature.
In a warning message to users, Facebook has said it will soon be discontinuing Network Pages, through which members of a particular network can view and interact with a variety of data, such as Wall postings, marketplace listings, statistics on the most popular things in their network, and popular groups. In the same message, Facebook suggests the use of its Groups feature to connect with people around them.
This is a pretty interesting move, and I'm not really sure why Facebook is going in this direction. Using Groups is a fine method of communication between people who share specific interests, but Network Pages, on the other hand, are great for seeing what's popular in your network, which probably includes people with whom you would not otherwise be in a group. It is a good, consolidated view of things that are of direct concern and interest to people in that network.
Bringing popular posted items, groups, and marketplace listings together in one place is reason enough to keep the feature, but when you add in a lively discussion board and Wall posts that really help solve a lot of connection problems, I just don't understand the reasoning behind this decision.
Facebook could not be immediately reached for comment.
Update (Facebook's response):
"Facebook has decided to remove the Network Portals because we have found that most users tend to get network information from their feeds, such as News Feed and Mini-Feed, rather than navigating to the portals. Groups, Pages and users' feeds continue to enable users to connect with the people in their networks and discover the most relevant information."
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personally, i don't visit the Network Pages very often, but there's no harm in keeping this feature. knowing what popular in my network is a handy feature and lets me discover items that would not otherwise show up in my newsfeed.
Is belonging to particular networks not the concept that Facebook was founded upon in the first place? It's hard to think of the benefits of getting rid of this feature, and the drawbacks are obvious.
Might this have something to do with Facebook recently negotiating new methods to stop sexual predators?
Maybe the Groups infrastructure is more scalable and flexible. If they do away with Networks, I would imagine they'll do some kind of auto-migration of everyone to an equivalent group. Now that Facebook is open to anyone, the need to start via a Network is gone.
While MySpace is by no means a closed network, you'd be surprised how different it is from Facebook in terms of connecting with like-minded people. "Difficult" isn't the right word, but MySpace is certainly less effective at allowing people to interconnect -- it's not as organic, and it's nowhere near as fun. Instead of a highly entertaining group of people you know, or people you'd like to know, as you find yourself suddenly belonging to on Facebook, your MySpace friends are much more like a random consortium of relatively independent and "isolated" individuals. Like most social networks, you just never feel as if you truly connect with them.