Facebook News: New Profile Layouts

Facebook will be unveiling the first major change to user profile pages since the mini-feed and 3rd party apps in the coming months.

Learn more about tabs, the new publisher, resizing of news feed stories, and more.

Profile Changes Are Coming Soon

Facebook

I think it would be interesting to see your Facebook friends sorted by number of mutual friends, and also mutual friends of friends. Does your number of mutual friends define who your closest real-life friends are? I would guess maybe not.

In other Facebook news, Facebook Chat has been enabled for the University of Illinois network. Usage seems to be limited, though, as students already have their normal way of chatting established.

Facebook Chat is Here

In case you were wondering if it's actually coming, Facebook Chat will be rolling out slowly to all users this week.

We'll be rolling [Facebook Chat] out slowly going forward, but fairly soon you'll notice our new Chat bar at the bottom of your browser—no installation or assembly required. From this bar you can view your list of online friends and open conversations with any or all of them. There's no need to setup a "buddy list.

Facebook Blog: Facebook Chat: Now We're Talking

Facebook Chat

Facebook is expected to be releasing a chat app for their popular website within the next few days. Do you think Facebook really needs chat? I think we already use Facebook too much, and desktop clients are still very popular. Google Chat, however, has had success largely because of its online integration with GMail - especially on college campuses. We will see.

Morin said Facebook Chat will launch next week ... Morin would not give a more specific launch date, so until we hear otherwise, the outside date is Saturday, April 5.

Techcrunch: Facebook Chat to be released Saturday, April 5
Techcrunch: Video of Facebook Chat

New Facebook Courses

We previously reported that Facebook is shutting down its "Courses" feature. They have indeed done that, and have posted a blog post recommending replacements:

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=4314497130

I am personally using the Courses app that they suggest. One of the main reasons to use Facebook is to find classmates to study with. Hopefully the new Courses won't divide everyone up, and will add more functionality to a really useful application.

Facebook to Developers: No more "Courses" App

In an amazing decision, the popular social networking site Facebook has decided to phase out it's "Courses" application. This application was one of the most important and integral parts of Facebook when the site was launched, because of the focus on connections of college students. Apparently this is yet another step away from the "College Community" and on to the "World Community."

Developers - Now is the time to build education applications on Facebook Platform! Facebook will be phasing out its Courses feature in early August, and we wanted to make sure you were the first to know.

Facebook Developer Blog: Education Application Opportunity

Update: Facebook's Public info about this