As everyone should know by now, Facebook recently launched an update to the homepage layout. How this will affect the virality of Applications remains to be seen but so far everything seems to be fairly consistent – we’ve noticed a 2-3% drop, but that’s nothing compared to what usually happens when Facebook post a major update.

The most interesting thing to come from all this has been user reaction. Because the roll-out has been staged over at least a week the new layout has reached different people at different times which has made for some interesting Facebook statuses. As always the general consensus seems to be contempt, dislike and horror. Personally I don’t see what all the fuss is about.

The new layout is just what it should be – clean, straightforward and easy to use. Moving bookmarks to the left hand side of the main page was an obvious thing to do, although no longer having easy access from the bottom left of the page is certainly going to take some getting used to. Added to that is the lack of ability to rearrange (which we’re told is to be fixed) and only 3 visible applications without clicking the ‘More’ button. Slightly annoying, but nothing major.

The ‘Dashboards’ are also a great addition and when fully rolled out have the potential to give users a single page from which to find games and applications, along with seeing updates from developers and friends alike. We’ve been testing the Dashboard API for a few weeks now and it’s relatively straightforward, although it should be noted that getting it to work does seem a little inconsistent at the moment.

So, why do users react badly to changes? The answer is simple: people don’t want to have to think about things. Facebook reaches such a large demographic and is used so much that even the slightest alteration is enough to kick start that “What the heck is this” feeling in a person. Give a few days and everyone’ll get used to things again. Until the next time.