Users hate the new Facebook design. So what’s next?

March 13th started a fury of activity on my Facebook. Everybody who is vocal on my Facebook had something negative to say about its new design. I repeatedly questioned the reasoning behind it and looked for something… anything remotely positive about it.

A quick search resulted in some insights on the goals of the new design.

• Allowing advertisers to better promote their products and services. This article on CIO.com also suggests that the concept of social advertising was not well received by the Facebook users in the recent past. It would be worth watching and finding out if the new design helps overcome that.

• Reacting to the Twitter threat. I have used both Twitter and Facebook and honestly, Facebook grew on me instantly but Twitter never did. After reading this article I think I owe Twitter another chance.

• Making it easy to connect and share information. The Facebook blog has many posts explaining the new designs enhancements with images and examples. Unfortunately all those posts have thousands of user comments; more than 50% of them are negative. Ming Keong Kuan’s comment captures the statistics well. (See image below).

Ming Keong Kuan - "6065 people liked the new Facebook. Assuming that all 11809 comments are negative and posted only once, 66% disliked it. I'm fine with it."

While the chatter around the new design is cooling down my interest in its impact is only growing. I am wondering if this strong criticism from its huge user base is going to impact the future of Facebook. Any guesses?