October 27, 2009, 8:30 PM — Approximately 14,000 people per hour. That's the rate of new registrations for the Facebook group "Change Facebook back to normal!" As of noon on Monday, the group had 1,019,216 members, many of opposed to the design and functionality changes introduced on Friday. The main sticking point, besides the fact that it's different than what people were used to, is the way the default News Feed of friends' updates gives more prominence to items that have been liked or commented. There is a link right at the top of the screen that lets people switch to the "Live Feed" of all updates, but that's enough for many users. "Do not like the live feed news feed at all!" was one typical comment spotted on the protest group's wall. "I don't have time to go back and forth plus I might miss something!" However, others noted that it's possible to switch back to the old feed setup by clicking on "More" in Facebook's left navigation and dragging "Status Updates" to the top of the list, over "News Feed" and everything else.
Despite the size of the protest, The Standard doesn't think Zuckerberg et al will actually revert the default feed appearance to what it looked like before last Friday's update. Unlike anger over terms of service or privacy-related issues, protests over minor design changes don't seem to sway the company, as previous protest efforts have shown.
Sources and research: Facebook, TheStandard.com
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