Just a quick note on my way between meetings, Facebook launched a redesign of its .com homepage late on September 29th, 2008.  The new design (shown below) uses much less whitespace, and features a new banner image.  Other than appearance, the biggest change seems to be that the public search box has been removed - although it is still available on the site, it is no longer on the homepage.  The public search utility allows anyone, including non-Facebook members, to search the network for friends, family, co-workers etc.  Facebook users have the option of "hiding" themselves from the public search if they choose - which many do, as those that don't are not only searchable from Facebook.com but also show up in Google searches!

In regards to the overall redesign, Facebook says that the crossover will be complete by week's end and that new.facebook.com will officially become facebook.com and the old interface will be completely phased out.

Here's the new homepage design - what are your thoughts?

Academica Group Inc.
Full Cycle Marketing for Higher Education™