SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 10 (DPI) — Facebook is forcing users to a more stylized and detailed format, but the move will likely backfire if users, especially older users, begin pulling the plug on their profiles.

Facebook quietly introduced last month the new format, called Timeline, which forces users to select a photo to dominate the top of their profile page, giving user profiles a magazine-style feel.  Facebook touts the format’s profile-management features, but it means greater  complexity and compartmentalization, which many users aren’t interested in.

Moreover, the “Timeline” format is a long, scrolling page that actually places on a timeline all the information — job info, college and school info, even the year you were born — on a single page, a kind of extended, Orwellian resume.

As such Facebook seeks to force users to add more information about themselves, something many users – older ones especially — won’t be inclined to do now that their profiles have resided on the site for several years.

Facebook’s millions of users are discovering that once they enter and experiment with the new format, they can’t return to the old one.  Comment boards are alight with negative comments about the change.  “So hard.. pls help us go back to our old facebook prifile.” “It is BS! They need to quit trying to be like MYSPACE! I like it the way it was and now I cant get back there… HELP!”

Already other help sites are adding technical advice on how to return to the old format, help Facebook doesn’t provide.

Still, as ehow.com reports, returning to the old format is not easy and “this is only a temporary fix. Because Facebook is trying to bring everyone on board with the new system, this will work only for a little while. You will eventually be forced to use the new system.”

http://www.ehow.com/how_4537077_go-back-old-facebook-design.html

Stay tuned:  The blowback – in the form of users cancelling their profiles — is just beginning, and could make last year’s strategic mistake by Netflix look small by comparison.