As most of you know, Facebook has changed their page layout. Without notice or choice, they flipped the switch. One minute it’s one way and the next minute it’s different.

That’s normally not a problem for a web savvy person such as yourself. (I’m assuming if you are reading Geek News Central, you are above average computer and web skills) For those people like my Mom, who are happy just to know how to do the basic things, this can throw them for a loop.

Non Geeks tend to learn a system or a web site and then as long as stays the same, they are fine. That covers a large percentage of Facebook users. I’m not saying we should all be geeks, I’m just saying that the geeks that run most web sites should think about non computer people when they decide to change something major on a popular website.

Same with software makers. If your program works one way with version 1, it should remain similar for version 2.

Back in the day, I remember that Quark Express (a once very popular page layout program used in graphic arts) went from version 3 to version 4 and 90% of the way things were done changed. This really caused a support problem in our art department where 5 out of the 7 people there were not “computer people”. It took a very long time to get everyone back up to speed on how to use the main program they did their jobs in.

I’m guessing that most of you reading this are “tech support” for your friends and family like I am.

My wife and I were sitting in our easy chairs with our laptops and my wife asked me. “What happened to Facebook?” “I can’t find my friends list” . I took a look and sure enough, the switch had been flipped. I didn’t know what to tell her as I hadn’t been on Facebook that day. About 5 minutes later, my phone rings. It’s my mom with the same question.

I get enough family and friends support calls as it is. Facebook, Stop moving stuff around!