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