The only reasonable explanation for the recent changes in Facebook layout is actually quite simple – the company is trying to teach its users how to use Facebook. With increasing competition from other social networks like Twitter, the company is loosing its competitive advantage  as it is  getting harder and harder to differentiate itself from other networks, therefore it has to make these uneasy decisions. If you look back to the history of Facebook you can easily notice what’s happening:

1. Almost a  year ago Facebook had a completelly different look, but quite similar stories on the personal feed: “Updates” separated from “Links”, “… added a friend” stories and etc. 

2. With a new layout they introduce a Twitter like “News feed” and “Friends lists” which until now was not used by as many people as expected. The “… added a friend” stories disappeared from the “News feed”, but  stayed on your profile.

3.  Recently, Facebook got back to its routes by separating “Updates” from the “Links” and bringing back “The highlights” section (the column which used to be on the right hand side above the” Events and Birthdays” listings)   to the “News feed”. But it is quite important to mention that they left an option to go to the “Live feed”what basically is your old Facebook layout.

Well playing with all these feeds is just a bit confusing, but it seems that Facebook wants people to notice these additional features on the  left column (where all the lists are available).

It seems like Facebook strategy was to explain their functionality to its users – the company wanted to show that it can be like Twitter, but also that Facebook is not Twitter, as it has much more functionality and features. It would be really interesting to hear your opinion what  were there reason for this change ?