If you haven’t already noticed, Facebook has changed their layout…again. As if the first change was not fraught with strong opposition and negative feedback Facebook has made another change a year later. As you may remember the last update caused quite a stir amongst users but has since been accepted by the general Facebook population. The new update rolled out quietly over the last couple of weeks includes several interesting features. 
Amongst these new feature is called “The Stream”. The stream is manifested in the new layout of each users home page. Essentially you will receive streaming notifications of everything that’s being shared by your friends and connections as it happens. The new layout will also provide you with more control by letting you choose exactly what you see in the stream and amongst the people and things you are connected to.
In addition the streaming information you are now getting, profiles for public figures and organizations once looked like pages, will now look more like user profiles. In the same way you can connect with individuals on Facebook, you can now connect with celebrities, musicians, politicians and various organizations. Granted, Facebook is a little behind on both these new features (Twitter has been doing this for ages now), it appears that Facebook is now the one playing catch up.
No one really knows how these new features will be accepted by the general Facebook community (there are several groups which have already sprung up calling for the old homepage to be reinstated). This can be expected, judging by the response during the last facelift. Although some of these groups are already 600k member strong – and the update was rolled out only last week.
We at FBReview.com decided to launch a poll to see what you think about the new changes. Do you like them or dislike them.
Update: April 7, 2009
After running the poll for the last few weeks, we have some preliminary results. As it stands now it appears DO NOT like the new layout one bit! Only 10 users voted for the new layout while a whopping 116 users say the hate it, and 3 users don’t seem to care either way. So for now it looks like 90% of you don’t like the new layout, however we’ll keep the poll running a bit longer, maybe some of you will grow to love the new design. So keep voting and at the end of April we will tally up the final results.
Each of us should do at least one thing to save the planet, like recycling or buying a Prius. When I found out I could do something for the planet just by playing Facebook Games, I was ecstatic. Not only I can do something good for the planet, I also don’t have to get off my ass. Therefore, I have filed this review under both Causes and Games categories because the Save the Planet application manages to combine the two. Coolapps created the Save the Planet application in order to incentivize donations to various charities. Save the Plant has a virtual currency called Lunch Money or L$. 
You earn Lunch Money by playing the various flash games offered. This money can then be donated to the various causes offers available such as feed the hungry, save the rainforest or donate water. For example; a grain of rice costs L$878, so if you donate say a L$1,000,000 worth of Lunch Money you actually donate 1152 grains of rice. Coolapps tallies up all the donations at the end of the month and writes a check to all the various charities. It’s a neat concept and is similar to the FreeRice program from the UN. As for the games (there are about 30 of them) are divided into various categories such Arcade, Card, Word and Strategy. The games are produced by third parties and are integrated into the application so that scores translate into earned L$. The quality of the games is pretty high since as I have mentioned they are developed by third parties and are probably licensed out to coolapps for use in this application. Of course you can also earn additional L$ by inviting your friends or challenging them in one of the available flash games.
The application has been gaining momentum on facebook as of late and has about 400k monthly active users. I expect its popularity to grow in the future; after all…it is for a good cause.
One of Facebook’s most sucessful and commonly used application is the “Causes” application. Which is why I thought it was important to give it a quick review. This application is where like-minded people can join a cause and post it on their wall. It is one of the most heavily used applications on facebook with nearly 14 million monthly active users!! There are all types of causes you could join such as: supporting Breast Cancer Awareness, HIV/AIDS research, and Save the Beer. Most of the causes are actually good, decent causes; on the other hand, some causes are ludicrous and just for fun. 
There are causes for almost anything you would want to support. Simply find a cause you believe in, then you can click on the link. The link will lead you to their page and give you details about the cause. From there, you are able to decide if it is something you support or not. After reading through the cause page, you can join the cause and it will be displayed in your profile. You can invite friends to join the cause with you if you felt strongly about it, which is a great way for a specific cause to gain supporters and awareness. Most of the causes will ask for donations, but it is not mandatory if you join. I would recommend reading their profile page in order to learn exactly where the money would be going before you choose to donate. This is a good way to find out what sort of charities are out there. It is easy to add the application and a great way to show your friends what sort of causes you stand behind. The donate button doesn’t always work, but usually they have a link to their main website, and you could donate that way. This is a great way to get people involved in various causes and issues that are real in our world right now.