Last year, Facebook put word out to preferred partners that the width of Facebook fan pages was shrinking from 760 pixels to a new slimmer width of 520 pixels. I was doing some social media development with Buddy Media at the time and kept hearing about the change but got no final word on when it would be implemented. After about a year the change went live, but because date switched several times a lot of pages “broke” when it finally did get rolled out.
As a result, companies all over the world had to update their fan page graphics and FBML so they weren’t overlapped by the shiny new ad space’s increased screen real estate. Well, it looks like it’s happening again, but this time without advanced notice. *update – it’s temporarily optional.
Surfing around Facebook today, it looks like the latest update has already gone live for certain companies. Notably, the width of the main page content has been reduced from 520 pixels to 495/500 pixels and the prominent top navigation has been moved to the left sidebar ala personal pages.
Also changed are profile pictures, reduced from 200 to 180 pixels. A height limit of 540 pixels was noted (by Scott A on the 10,000 fans fan page) but I was unable to confirm as the changes appear to be rolling out currently.
I appreciate Facebook letting me play in their sandbox, but why are they so stingy with their toys?
While I was unable to find any official notice of the changes, I’m noticing a major trend of Facebook removing both user and promotional functionality and replacing it with increasingly aggressive advertising efforts. It’s likely the update will be optional temporarily to give users and fan page owners a chance to adapt, but I imagine it will become standard soon enough.
So what do you think? Have you seen the new specs on your fan pages? How does it affect your stance on building a brand on a platform that seems hell bent on removing user functionality to make room for more ad space?
*edit. Here’s the link to the notice from FB, though I don’t see anything official about the width change mentioned in this article.
