Declining Facebook usage? Calm down.

There’s a lot of buzz right now about a recent Pew study showing that it’s not terribly uncommon for Facebook users to “take a break” from the site for some period of time. Most of the articles I’ve seen frame the report in the context of showing declining interest in Facebook; several go a step further and cite it as showing that Facebook has little potential to keep growing in the future. The headline on Associations Now asks, “Is Facebook fading?”

My take? Yes, people are starting to take breaks from Facebook. But this is a natural after-effect of the phenomenal growth the network has seen in recent years. Continue reading

Larger Facebook Link Previews: Make Them Work for You

Facebook reportedly is preparing to roll out a new News Feed display that boosts the size of link previews, making them more prominent in comparison with other content. Inside Facebook reports that the link preview is increasing from 90×90 pixels to 154 by 154 pixels. The rollout reportedly began today – although I don’t yet see it in my News Feed.

It will be interesting to see how this affects users’ interactions with shared links. Continue reading