Valleywag: Meredith Chin

Facebook "still iterating" on profile design, pushes back rollout to developers' relief

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 09:40:00 PDT

Facebook flack Meredith Chin said the company would roll out a new profile design by early April. Didn't happen. And it won't until later this spring, Facebook developer Pete Bratach writes on the company's developer blog. "We're still iterating on the design, making sure we get it right," Bratach explains. BoomTown reports that third-party developers are greatly relieved by the delay. "They really have to roll this out perfectly," one told Kara Swisher. "It really is the biggest thing since Beacon, and you know how that went." (Poorly, and ruining more than a few Christmases by disclosing people's online purchases to Facebook friends.) But we disagree that Mark Zuckerberg should try to "roll this out perfectly."

Much of the backlash was the result of an overhyped product release. Perfect rollouts are best left to Steve Jobs — and as much as Zuckerberg idolizes his Palo Alto neighbor, his reality distortion field is not yet in place. The Beacon failure resonated because Mark Zuckerberg promised to change media for the next 100 years. He shouldn't have promised anything past 100 days. Changes to Web software like Facebook should come in small, perhaps imperfect but easily fixed steps. That seems easier.

Facebook confirms Facebook Chat, makes life easier for stalkers

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:00:38 PDT

Facebook will launch Facebook Chat, a Web-based IM system built into Facebook, in the coming weeks, flack Meredith Chin confirmed today. There go startup Social.im's hopes for an acquisition. Chin wouldn't share any more details. (You should. Leaks are good for business, remember.) She also said Facebook would introduce new privacy updates tomorrow, including an option to allow "friends of friends" to share information. I'll start. 25/m/NY.

Screenshots of new Facebook profile pages

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:34:08 PST

Mark Zuckerberg is chastened. 587,715 members joined a protest group called "Students against Facebook News Feed" the day after he rolled out the feature, and ever since, he's been very careful with changes to his social network. You know, except for that whole Beacon thing that ruined Christmas. Still. Fits and starts, people. Fits and starts. Here are screenshots of Facebook's new profile format. If they don't cause riots, Facebook flack Meredith Chin says the new profiles will come out sometime this spring.