Just in case you didn’t know, you can see what the new Facebook profiles are going to look like here http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php

The new layout has a lot more dependence on AJAX/Javascript and they’re clearly focusing on the news feed.  To access the application boxes & info that used to be on the profile page you need to click on one of the tabs under the person’s name.  Also the link to comment on a news item is now the word ‘Comment’ instead  of the rather ambiguous little icon it is currently.

The obvious comparison here is with FriendFeed.  The current version of Facebook doesn’t allow you to comment on items directly from the news feed, you have to go to an individual person’s profile to do that.  We can’t see whether this will be possible in the new version of Facebook because it’s not showing us the news feed yet.  When you click on the home link on the new facebook site it just reloads the profile page.  If they do allow this it will become very much a FriendFeed clone. 

The question is will anyone use it?  As Sarah Perez mentioned in her recent Read Write Web article,

When explaining the [commenting] feature to a few mainstream Facebookers to see what they thought, the responses were just lukewarm. Obviously, this wasn’t a scientific survey, but their reactions could possibly be indicative of the typical Facebook user mindset: Why comment on a feed item about a photo upload when you can just comment on the photo itself? Why leave your friend a comment they could miss when you can write on their wall…which they are notified about?

With these questions in mind, we wonder if it is possible that the commenting feature hasn’t taken off yet not because it wasn’t visible, but because most Facebook users don’t really find the feature that useful? What do you think?

I think it won’t take off to be honest.  There are already numerous ways that people can communicate with their friends about things on their news feed, the ‘wall’ or the various applications mimicking being the most common.  I think Facebook will start running into an issue where it starts to confuse people.  Most people who use Facebook are not internet social networking junkies.  They’re not impressed by being able to import their  del.icio.us links, and they’re probably not going to comment on someone else’s.

I think Facebook is going in the right direction with the new profile design, I just think they’re going to need to be very careful not to overload people with features that freak them out.  Remember, despite what you think, a lot of people are still down right terrified that the computer is going to break every time they touch it.  I’m not saying they should dumb the interface down, but have 10 different ways to comment on something is probably just going to end up confusing everyone