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After months of planning, Facebook has finally made good on its promise to switch from the “old Facebook” to the “new Facebook” with a brand new layout to the site. But these new changes have created an uproar among some of the Facebook community.”It’s kind of annoying. It’s hard to see where everything is now,” said John Cunningham, 19-year-old computer engineering major, who dislikes the new layout changes.

“I used to like how it had the updates and then the wall, and now it’s hard to follow,” he said.

The site has a brand new homepage with a wider sidebar that has been shifted from the left to the right. The applications can now be seen on the header and on the sidebar with a new drop-down menu. The news feed and mini-feed have been bunched up together as one on the homepage.

Facebook has been the most popular social network among college students since its launch back in 2004. With more than 50 million users and 250,000 new users registering each day, the site’s developers have been careful in making modifications.

Even so, many users have not been receptive to the latest changes to the site. More than 500 Facebook social groups have been created to protest them.

“All of my friends joined these anti-new Facebook groups,” said Lisa Martinez, 24-year-old art major. “It’s a nice change, but I do prefer the old Facebook,” she said. “It’s a little simpler, but when you make a transition like this, it’s hard to get used to.”

One of the most popular anti-new Facebook groups, “I Hate The New Facebook (www.new.facebook.com),” which features a list of 20 reasons to hate the new Facebook, reached one million members on Sept. 13. The group’s administrator, Ryan Mutton, is attempting to use the group as a petition to have the old Facebook be an option to users.

Caitlin Walker, 17-year-old English major agrees with the group’s plan. “I think they should give you the option [to decide which version you want to use],” she said. “I don’t like the change. I don’t want to learn an entire new setting.”

Facebook experienced a similar outcry just a few years back.

In 2006, the site launched the mini-feed and news feed features, which allowed users to send and receive updates on what their friends were doing or changing on their pages. Many users lashed out against the social network by creating groups to protest those features.

The most recent change came in spring of 2008, when Facebook added the now popular chat application, which allowed users to view who was online and instant message them.

While people felt this feature was a copy of the other popular social network MySpace’s instant messenger application, the transition went smoothly.

Although many people have been forced to adapt to the new Facebook, many are still unhappy with the changes and are not sure of what to do with their Facebook accounts.

“Most of my friends are on Facebook,” Cunningham said. On his decision to stick with either Facebook or MySpace, he said: “I’m on the fence between the two.”

Whether users like the “new Facebook” or not, only one thing is certain: developers are at a standoff with unhappy users as it seems they do not plan to return to the “old Facebook” back anytime soon.

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