Today Facebook redesigned the Publisher (the box at the top of your Wall and News Feed that allows you to share content), hinting at the possibility of something bigger in the works.
Here’s what it used to look like:
Old Facebook Publisher
When you clicked inside the text box, the Publisher would expand and application names and icons would appear underneath to allow you to share specific items such as links, photos, videos, etc.
Old Facebook Publisher (expanded)
And here’s the new design:
New Facebook Publisher
As you can see, the application icons are already visible; you don’t need to have the cursor focus in the text box to see them. I suspect this will be a welcome change for many people, as on more than one occasion I’ve been asked by a confused friend how to post links with the previous Publisher. (Clicking in the text box first was not as intuitive as it should be, it seems.)
More interestingly, there is now quite a large gap between the application icons and the “Share” button. Is this redesign of the Publisher in preparation for the rumored “Everyone button” that TechCrunch and All Facebook have written about? It does seem quite likely.
Here’s a FBHive mock-up of what the future Publisher box might look like:
Future Facebook Publisher? (FBHive mock-up)
So what is the “Everyone button”, anyway?
The “Everyone button” would purportedly allow you to make individual status messages, links, photos, videos, etc. visible to the public (much like Twitter) and searchable with Facebook’s shiny new search engine (much like Twitter).
If you haven’t noticed, Facebook have been taking a lot of design and functionality cues from Twitter ever since they failed to buy them out (if you can’t buy ‘em, beat ‘em?). If the “Everyone button” does become a reality, it will be another feature to add to that growing list.
What do you think of the new Publisher design? Do you believe an “Everyone button” is on the horizon?
Update: As we predicted, Facebook redesigned the Publisher to accommodate for the rumored “Everyone button”, or as it is now officially known, the “Publisher Privacy Control”. Read more about it here.
Interesting, I noticed this earlier when I went to share an item with a friend. I have also read about the ‘Everyone’ concept but intrigued as to how they will publish items, also I suppose it’s possible we will also be able to @reply other Facebook users when that launches [username only]?!
Comment byJoe Dawson — June 25, 2009 @ 3:03 am
I would like a central location for Facebook Connect activity as well
Comment byJoe Dawson — June 25, 2009 @ 3:05 am
Note: It took me a really long time to configure your Facebook Profile stuff so my name and website actually looked right.
Anyway. I’m just waiting for someone to come out with a way to sort all your content into streams. Friendfeed did some stuff right by allowing you to place things into different feeds (Rooms, Lists, etc). What really needs to happen is I should be able to subscribe to only your business messages, or only your personal messages, or any other category you’d like to put messages in. That way I only get the content that is relevant to me.
Comment byTyler Chacha — June 25, 2009 @ 4:13 am
@Tyler
Your wish has been half-granted. With Facebook’s newly announced “Publisher Privacy Control”, more granular control over individual posts will now be possible, but the power is in the hands of the publisher, not the subscriber. e.g. It will be up to the publisher to create a “Business” Friend List and send business-related content only to that list.
Read more about the new Publisher Privacy Control here:
http://www.fbhive.com/facebooks-publisher-privacy-control-lets-you-share-in-more-ways/
Comment by FBHiveD — June 25, 2009 @ 6:57 am