The new Facebook is the old Twitter

It wasn't that long ago that Facebook overhauled its look, a move that predictably resulted in a ton of complaints. However, Facebook stuck it out, the complaining soon died, and life continued on in cyberspace.

Fast forward just a few months, and Twitter is all the rage, so Facebook decided to once again overhaul its look to make it more Twitter-like.

And I hate it with a passion. Hate, hate, hate. As in, "Thinking of shutting down my Facebook account" hate.

Yes, I know I've agreed with the sentiment that complaining about Facebook is one of those "first world" complaints that us comfortable North Americans make while real problems affecting real people remain ignored so we can complain about Facebook.

That said, the new Facebook format is terrible. It's Twitter. But we already have Twitter. Sure, Twitter is likely stealing traffic away from Facebook, but Twitter has, to my knowledge, no revenue model, and no revenue to speak of, so I have no idea how long Twitter is going to be around.

Facebook, meanwhile, has a devoted (read: fanatical to the point of being dangerous) legion of fans that feels very attached to the site and does not suffer changes gladly (witness the recent revolt over the Terms of Service). So why would Facebook tempt fate again by overhauling its look and risking alienating its users?

All the fun little intricacies that made Facebook "Facebook" are being removed - the status updates no longer default to that awkward third person, "Mike is ...". Awkward, but uniquely Facebook. The birthday calendar has vanished. I have this weird sidebar full of useless things my friends are doing.

In short, I'm not impressed.

And, no, I'm not really going to shut down my Facebook account. In about a week, I'll probably forget what the "old" Facebook even looked like - about the time that Facebook updates its look again and people start complaining about how much they miss the Twitter-like look.

But if I've learned anything from The Simpson's (and I'd like to think that I haven't, but that's a complete lie) it's that, "Rest assured, I was on the Internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world."