There has been a lot of talk about how the new, redesigned Facebook News Feed is similar to Google+. The new interface has recently rolled out to my account and I've had a look around. Are they really that similar? Read on as I report my findings below:
I signed up for the preview (which you can opt-in here) a few days ago, and I woke up to the new News Feed this morning. Obviously, I wasn't terribly excited, though I was keen to get an actual hands-on for myself to see how similar it is to Google+, that everyone has purported it to be.
A quick note before you go on.. The "new search experience" (or graph search) hasn't yet rolled out to me, so I can't provide a fair comparison in this area. I have also tried to be as unbiased as possible.
Posts
The Facebook News Feed has been redesigned to have a more unified experience with its mobile counterpart, which it draws its main inspiration from, with a new desktop side menu and bigger shared photos in the feed.The first things that stood out for me is that posts have gotten a lot bigger, and there's no denying that the buttons and engagement statistics now look similar to what you'd see on a post in Google+. The profile picture of the person sharing the post is now more prominent, and is displayed at the side of the post, also like Google+.
Take a look for yourself:
 |
| On Facebook |
 |
| On Google+ |
The Side Menu
Suddenly, things don't look so much like Google+ any more.
News Feed Lists
 |
| A handy set of filters for your news feed, which I'd say is obviously inspired |
Facebook has made it easier to filter your News Feed with interest and relationship filters. There is a new menu on the right of the News Feed with some automatically generated lists, as well as ones you've created (Family, Friends etc). When clicking on a list/filter, there's a widget where you can see who is in that list, and there's a text box underneath to quickly add others to the list.
Of course, Google+ users have had it easy from the start, being able to quickly filter the stream by selecting Circles from the bar at the top of the stream. It was inevitable that Facebook would catch up.
 |
| Filtering by list on Facebook |
 |
| Filtering by circle on Google+ |
Anything Else?
Not really, pages and profiles still look the same, as well as the other core parts of Facebook. I thought we'd see noticeable improvements to the Facebook app for Android, but there's nothing worth noting. Advertisements are bigger than ever, they're everywhere too. On the side of the news feed, in the news feed, on the side of photos.Final Thoughts
Facebook's redesign isn't an exact duplicate of Google+, nor is it radically different either. Although the most similar (and questionable) changes are the new look posts on Facebook. Looking at the two screenshots I posted above, from a glance they look almost indistinguishable for more than a few seconds.
Everything else seems to be a natural evolution of Facebook design, and a genuine strive for consistency between the desktop and mobile. Everyone can see the similarities, but it seems that the media over exaggerated the facts a little too much.
Whilst we're on the topic of Facebook, you can like us (if you like). Just head over to facebook.com/googleplusdaily
Whilst we're on the topic of Facebook, you can like us (if you like). Just head over to facebook.com/googleplusdaily
What do you think? Does the new Facebook look like Google+ to you?