Facebook is rolling out a new homepage design that users seem to hate—just as Google is offering its own social-networking alternative. Is a mass defection imminent?
就在Google推出新的社群服務時，Facebook的新介面上路了，但大家好像不太買帳。難道大規模的叛逃就在眼前了嗎？
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We’ve seen this movie before. Facebook rolls out new changes, its users kick and scream, Facebook walks the changes back a bit, and then everyone gets on with their lives.
電影大家都看了，Facebook有些新改變，使用者們會先瘋狂的抱怨，然後Facebook會把這些改變往回修正一點，而大家又再度把Facebook視為生活中的常態XD。
Here we go again. Facebook just introduced a new homepage with a layout that sends you a stream of “top news” in the main center column of the page—Facebook decides which stories you see. The idea is to make Facebook operate “like your own personal newspaper,” according to a company exec. There’s also a new “ticker” on the right side that automatically refreshes itself, so new items crawl up the column. It’s basically a knockoff of Twitter, the microblogging service.
這次老招又來了，Facebook發表了新的首頁，現在會有一個稱作”top news”的訊息流在中間的欄位，Facebook會幫你決定要看什麼。現在的概念有點像是把Facebook定位成你的個人報紙。根據公司的說法，右手邊的的欄位有些新花樣，最新的訊息會在上面浮現，基本上就是山寨版的Twitter(推特)，也就是微網誌服務。
But Facebook users don’t like the site choosing their top stories for them. As one wrote, in all caps, on Facebook’s Help page: “HEY GOOGLE MORONS WE DON’T WANT TOP STORIES! NOBODY SETS THEIR PAGE TO TOP STORIES. … HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO ME FACEBOOK? CAN YOU READ OUR MINDS?” From another came this: “Fucking jackasses. I want posts from my friends listed in order from recent to oldest. Period! Shove the top stories up your asses facebook!”
但使用者並不希望Facebook替他們選擇哪些訊息是優先的，有人在Facebook的求助介面這樣寫：嘿！google白癡，我不根本不想要top stories。根本沒有人想要top stories，你怎麼知道什麼重要什麼不重要，難道你會讀心術嗎？
另外有人這樣說：他X的白癡，我希望我朋友的訊息能依照時間順序來排，什麼top stories的放在你屁X裡就好了。
Others are complaining that Facebook’s layout, which was already overcrowded and ugly, has now become even more cluttered. In short, Facebook’s users, as usual, want things switched back to the way they were before.
另外有些人則抱怨facebook的版面配置，原本就已經夠擁擠而且夠醜了，現在反而更糟，政個亂成一團，簡單來說，facebook的使用者們希望變回以前那樣就好。
The bad news is, this is just the beginning of a larger rollout of changes. Facebook is expected to introduce even more new features this week, including a partnership with a bunch of music-streaming companies like Spotify, MOG, and Rdio. This will happen at Facebook’s annual conference, F8, which starts tomorrow.
但事情可不如大家所期望的，這只是大改變的開端而已，facebook希望在這周推出更多新功能，包括和和一些線上音樂公司合作，如Spotify、MOG、和Rdio。這會在facebook年會上出現。
This is a bad time for Facebook to be drawing the ire of its users.
對facebook來說，這實在不是一個惹惱使用者的好時機。
Facebook’s changes represent a response to a new threat from Google+, the social-networking site that has been attracting lots of buzz—including from high-profile social-media mavens like Robert Scoble—since it launched nearly three months ago. To be sure, Facebook remains the undisputed champ of social networking, with 750 million members, making it far bigger than Google+, which claims only 10 million members. (Others estimate Google+ could have as many as 20 million members, but Google won’t confirm that.)
因為有了Google+的威脅，Facebook做出改變。Google+在這三個月內吸引了許多人，包括社群媒體專家Robert Scoble。Facebook理所當然的還是社群網站之王，畢竟他的會員數高達7.5億，而google+只有千萬。
But Google+ nevertheless represents a threat, if only because Google is a formidable competitor with deep resources and a history of successful innovation. Which means this is a bad time for Facebook to be drawing the ire of its users. The timing couldn’t be worse: this week, just as Facebook was taking heat for changing its homepage design, Google+ announced news of its own—the site, which had previously required an invitation, is now open to the public.
但Google+總是個威脅，因為google擁有非常具有深度的資源可以整合，而且在創新上有非常成功的歷史，這些因素都使得google+深具競爭力。這也表示，facebook如果想要惹惱他的使用者們，這是個不太妙時機。不過讓這一切更糟的是facebook改變了首頁設計，而google+剛好公開了，不必再邀請。
Moreover, while Google+ is still the David to Facebook’s Goliath, there are ways in which it’s better, despite its smaller size. For one thing, its user interface is much cleaner and easier to understand. To grossly oversimplify, the design of Google+ seems to be inspired by Apple, with its Zen minimalist approach, while Facebook suffers from a disease I call Microsofitis, a condition in which you just keep cramming in more and more features, cluttering up pages with buttons and menus and myriad little things for the user to learn.
不論雙方目前的懸殊，Google+仍然是那隻可能會把大鯨魚打倒的小蝦米，除了規模外，有許多地方都勝出。別的不說，使用者介面的乾淨與舒適度就大勝。Google+的簡單風格似乎受到Apple的影響，當facebook掉入了”微軟風格”的肥大病，永遠把新功能只是填鴨再填鴨，無止盡的擁擠，五花八門的按鈕和選單，還有永遠學不完的新功能。Google+反而掌握了簡單的禪意。
So is Facebook running scared? Not yet, but the No. 1 social-networking site, though clearly dominant in this space, does seem rattled. In May, just before Google+ was introduced, Facebook was busted trying to run a clumsy smear campaign against Google, as revealed in a Daily Beast exclusive.
所以facebook被嚇傻了嗎？還沒，但目前這個首屈一指的社群網站看起來的確有點狼狽。在google+還沒發表的五月份，Facebook就傳出雇用寫手和輿論來攻擊google，這些都在Daily Beast獨家揭露。
And there are signs that Facebook has been losing momentum. As Business Insider pointed out recently, in recent months Facebook has rolled out a bunch of new features that have fallen flat. These include services that aimed to compete against Foursquare, Twitter, and Groupon, and a feature called Messages that was supposed to take the place of email, but didn’t. And while a lot of people cheered at numbers indicating that Facebook generated $1.6 billion in revenues in the first half of this year, one analyst pointed out that this means Facebook might have fallen short of its previous estimates for the year.
而且有些指標顯示facebook的動能快要喪失殆盡了。近日有商業內幕指出，近幾個月facebook所推出一連串的新功能沒人買帳全部都落空。包括一些功能想取代Foursquare、Twitter、Groupon等網站，還有想取代e-mail的訊息功能，不過全都失敗。雖然上半年度160億的獲利讓人感到愉悅，但有些分析師指出，這樣的數字其實帶表facebook的年度獲利會比去年預期的還少。
Facebook is expected to float an initial public offering of its stock sometime in 2012, and its investors include some of the biggest power players in Silicon Valley and Wall Street, all of whom are counting on Facebook’s boyish 27-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to deliver them a hefty payday.
Facobook的股票預計在2012時發行，它目前的投資者包含許多矽谷與華爾街的重量及玩家，他們全部都仰仗這個27歲的CEO馬克佐伯格能帶來大筆財富。
A year ago the notion of a huge and lucrative Facebook IPO looked like a slam-dunk. Today the company is facing real competition, and looking a bit shaken. Now it must find a way to stay ahead of rivals by adding new features and expanding the things people do on Facebook—and do this without angering its members. That will be a tricky wire to walk.
一年前，發行股票的想法簡直就是一個大滿貫，但現在facebook面臨了實體的挑戰，而且看起來有些動搖。現在他們必須不停的想辦法保持在對手的前面，不但要有新功能，也要讓使用者們在facebook上做更多更多的事情。而且是不會惹惱他們的事情XD，那可不是康莊大道，反而開始有點像走鋼索了。
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