I could barely contain myself. When I raced to download the application for my 21-day trial I practically had my credit card in my hand. I almost bought my copy outright but stopped myself to give the software a try. I’m very glad that I did.

Though Blogo certainly has a lot going for it, advanced bloggers are going to want to keep away. It’s feature set is just to limited for people that require advanced manipulation of text and even basic posts are more difficult to post in Blogo than they are in the WordPress or TypePad editing panel.

However, those are the problems that can be fixed, there are other problems that seem to be a bit deeper into the development culture of the product.

Brief Background

Traditionally I have been a MarsEdit user. The bare-bones interface gave me the tools that I needed to get by and not much more. Sure, it lacked the full visual editor, but its HTML was more than robust enough and the ability add and edit tags helped me work with my custom template.

However, in recent months I’ve been trying to use the actual WordPress admin more and more. MarsEdit is Mac-only and I actually have to blog from three different computers, a Mac at my office, a Windows one at home and a Linux laptop. I have to at least be able to function on all three.

Fortunately, after some tweaks to my CSS and my code, I was able to set it up so that I didn’t need Marsedit’s functionality but still enjoyed the fact it had more tags and tools than WordPress. Still, I’ve been working to get used to the default interface and have been using it exclusively on all my sites for the past few weeks.

But there is still a lot of reason a standalone blog editor appeals to me, at least for most days. Sadly though, Blogo isn’t the one that I am looking for.

The Good

On the upside of the coin, Blogo is a beautiful application that is fast, stable and capable. What it does it does very well. I was able to get it to connect to all of my WordPress blogs without any issue. The application looks very good, the interface is easy to understand and it fits well with the Mac, which is something MarsEdit doesn’t do as well.

Overall, the process of setting up blogs and posting is very easy and intuitive. I also really like the feature that lets me drag images in and resize them directly in the application. If it could combine that with a built in screenshot program, I’d likely be in heaven.

For the most part, you should have no trouble figuring out how to use the interface or what to do with the program. Furthermore, it definitely provides a very “Mac-like” editing experience. For the most part, it will fit neatly within any workflow you have going on your Mac, especially if you are a fan of drag and drop.

The Bad

The bad news is that the very minimalist UI leads to a very limited set of editing tools. In fact, Blog has fewer features than the default editor for WordPress. You can bold, italicize, underline, strikethrough, quote and bullet list using the formatting tools provided, but not much else. There is no way to insert the “More” tag, something I desperately need, (Correction: This function is under the “Format/Insert menu. I did not see it. It is pretty thoroughly buried, you can’t be in full screen edit mode to use it and is named “Page Break”. I simply did not see it.) no way to add headers (which WordPress does lack) and the image support while cool, is more limited than WP’s current image uploader.

Compare this to MarsEdit, which has dozens of additional options right out of the box and the ability to add/create more if needed. Not only is Blogo limited compared to Marsedit, but it is also inflexible.

But once you are done editing, the problems resume. The last step for me on one of my blogs is to add some custom tags to the post so I can have the correct images display on the home page. Currently, no blog editor has this function (I’m not even sure if it is possible) so I have to upload my posts as a draft and put the finishing touches on the post.

This is not a major deal for me, but Blogo has no means to set up a post to be uploaded as a draft (Correction: This was a mistake on my part, It is available under the “File” menu. Not where I expected it, but not so horrible I feel vindicated for not seeing it.) Marsedit, by contrast, has the ability to not just set that option per post, but to make it the default, a big boost for people like me that need to make 100% something isn’t published before its ready.

Finally, I did notice a few bugs as I used the application. For one, the preview function did not work as advertised. Though it did the temporary post and pulled down the template, there were two problems with the process.

First, the temporary post was shot out over my feed as it wasn’t taken down quick enough. This made me very nervous about trying it again. Second, the preview never would display the text of the post I was writing just the “The is a temporary post” text that it inserts in the test post.

Without a “MORE” tag, no custom tags, no “post as draft” feature I literally can not use the application for any of my blogging. I depend on all three of the functions and, without at least the last item, there is nothing that I can do.

The Ugly

The problem through it all is that I actually wanted to like Blogo. I have a strong affinity for quirky apps, which can be affirmed by looking at their icon (see above ), I love the idea of full-screen blog editing, especially for longer posts, and the application’s look and feel is great.

So, in an attempt to see if I was overlooking the features that I needed (or at least plant a bug in the developer’s ear for future work) I headed over the to the Blogo support forums to ask my question. I posted a simple question about uploading the posts as draft and, after two days of being up, no one has come to reply to it. The forums themselves are pretty dead right now, only about half a dozen topics, but other questions have seen answers.

Compare this kind of support to IntenseDebate, who responded to a problem I had within one hour. I realize that Blogo is the product of a small Mac development company, but product support, even to free members, is often the difference between an app that gets used or one that rots on the digital shelves.

Sadly, I think Blogo and its company, Brainjuice, have lost my business for good. I can wait patiently for the features I need to be added, I did with MarsEdit, but to not even acknowledge the question or the issue, as well as other more pressing problems, is not excusable.

Conclusions

In the end, Blogo is a flawed but loveable application that could really become something of value down the road. However, if its company were nearly as loveable as the application itself, I might consider waiting for that to happen, but as it is I’m going to rededicate myself to using the backend of WordPress and hoping for the best.

WordPress’ editor may not be the best in the world but it has the features I need and I can use it anywhere.

Besides, at least with WP I know who I can ask to get help when I need it…

The inevitable conclusion I’ve reached is that, if you’re not a musician or under the age of sixteen, Myspace doesn’t have a lot for you. Facebook lets you make connections without going through all of the B.S. It’s a nice way to keep in touch without getting drowned in drama.

However, this is not to say that Facebook is perfect, far from it. Though I don’t hate the new layout, I’ve still managed to find a lot of things that annoy me endlessly.

So, before I go bald ripping my hair out, here are my top five Facebook annoyances in order of the number of “facepalms” they’ve caused.

5. Facebook Chat

Thank God you can log into Facebook chat via either Adium or other programs. The version that is on the site is practically useless.

The main problem is that no one seems to be able to stay online consistently with it. Every time I click the “Online Friends” button the footer, I make a mental note of the number of people it says is online only to watch that number change, often drastically, in the split second it takes the list to open.

It’s especially frustrating to be chatting with someone, go to send them a message and then be told it can’t be send because they are offline. Sure, I know connectivity sometimes sucks, but Yahoo! doesn’t have this problem. It’s just Facebook.

The sad thing is I really like this idea. I really wish that someone, like Meebo, would create an IM system that not only integrated with my browser but also put the conversations in the status bar. When I’m IMing is the only time I really miss having a Windows-style taskbar.

4. People You May Know

When I first signed up for Facebook the “People You May Know” box was actually kind of useful. Even though I imported all of my email into the system, I missed a few people and it helped me pick some of them up. Great.

After about day three though, it turned into a mass of stupidity. Right now, the number one reason people seem to appear there is because they attended the same school I did. The only problem with that is that nearly 30,000 students were there when I was attending.

Given my small circle of friends at college, my chances of finding someone I know that way effectively zero.

The second most common reason is they are friends with my friends. This assumes, of course, that I know all of the people my friends know and considering most of the people I have on Facebook are well established with hundreds of friends, that too has almost a zero percent chance of working.

I guess I’ll have to find my own friends but, if I were good at that, I wouldn’t need social networking.

3. Photos

The photo system is a real mess, especially if you want to upload more than just a few images.

Want to put up all of your vacation photos? Plan on using two galleries or more. They set a hard limit of sixty per gallery for no obvious reason. This makes it frustrating to put up any large photo set and causes organization to break down fast.

However, the worst problem I have is that I can not get more than about 12 photos to upload at once. Using Facebook’s uploader, anything more results in an error. This is the reason why it took me nearly three hours to upload, tag and rotate about 120 images.

This wouldn’t be so bad if image management was not already a solved problem. With companies like Flickr showing the world how elegant image management can be, Facebook just looks plain stupid.

2. Importing

Facebook is supposed to be your central hub, where people get to know about you and what you’re doing on the Web. That’s an all-around great idea. So why does its import feature stink to the point of uselessness?

Sure, you can connect with your Digg, Reddit, Flick, YouTube, etc. but what if you don’t use those services? Well, you’re out of luck.

You can import one additional RSS feed, but that is it. That means my Plagiarism Today posts make it into my Facebook, about six hours after they hit my site, but I can’t put this site in there nor can I put in my Diigo bookmarks, my Blip.TV videos, my Tumbleblog or anything else that I do.

Sure, you can fix some of this with applications, but shouldn’t this be part of Facebook’s core element? At least allow us to use more than one RSS feed.

Some of us do have online lives outside of Facebook.

1. Social Applications

As a man who prides himself on keeping his cool in tense situations, I am ashamed to admit some of these Facebook applications send me into a rage the likes of which I have not known in some time.

Granted, there are many great Facebook applications. I use a few of them to make up for things that Facebook really should have added on its own, such as Blog Networks, but there are others that are just flat out annoying.

Let me get this straight for anyone that might be wondering. I do not with to be a vampire, werewolf, zombie or any other creature of the night. I do not care how much you “bite”. I do not want to engage in mob, drug or any other kind of wars. I don’t want any gifts. I do not want to be a part of anyone’s entourage, nor do I want to be super poked.

I just want to meet people and talk with them. Radical concept.

I cannot count the number of applications that I have blocked over the past few weeks and I’m sure I’ve left many out. It seems that every time someone signs up, everyone else is in a rush to recruit them for absolutely every kind of social app.

Forget it, I’m not playing. However, this is still the number one reason my hopes get dashed when I get a new notification.

I think I’ve blocked the worst but there are still some very creative people out there.

Conclusions

The bottom line for me is that Facebook is great, but nowhere near perfect.

Fortunately though, a social network is made up not of the apps that run it, but the people on it. In that regard, Facebook has been pretty good to me. I’ve reconnected with some old friends, found a new way to stay in touch with current ones and even made a few new ones.

All in all, it’s been great.

I just wish Facebook itself weren’t quite so annoying.

However, as strange as it may sound. I actually got to use both designs and, frankly, I don’t see what all of the excitement is about. Sure, the new layout is different, but it really isn’t THAT bad.

I think a lot of Facebook users need to calm down and think about this a bit more logically. I admit it is a jarring transition and that any change comes with a little bit of pain.

But is it possible that Facebook users are over-reacting, just a tiny bit? Seriously, let’s take a moment to put this in perspective.

How I Broke the Facebook

My first experience with the new layout actually wasn’t on my account, but my better half’s. I had added her as a relationship contact and she needed to sign in to approve it. She had had he account for some time, having gotten it for an old job, but had not done anything with it.

When she went to add me, I noticed that her page looked different from mine and, with two version of Facebook open up on two monitors side-by-side, I got the chance to briefly look at both of them and even observe both of them in action.

To me, my version, the old one, didn’t look like it made the best use of the space. It looked cramped and cluttered and it didn’t take up the whole of my screen. It was easy to use, and I picked it up quick, but I really liked the version on Crystal’s monitor better. It was open, brighter, made heavier use of tabs and to me at least, more attractive.

However, I was at least somewhat aware of the debate going on even though I did not know which layout was which. I instantly assumed that I had been moved to the newer layout and Crystal was somehow still on the old. I didn’t think to check the URL so I was convinced the old layout was the new one simply because I liked it less.

Then, a few hours later, I landed on a www.new.facebook.com link and found myself using the new layout. I liked it. Since I hadn’t had the experience of using the previous layout for years, the transition was not nearly as jarring and I was able to look at the new layout without worrying about to find every little feature a second time.

The new layout made sense, it looked good and, after a few hours of learning, I felt as if I was back on track. Yes, there was a transition period, even for someone who had only been on the site a few hours, but I picked up and moved on quickly.

Now, I am completely unsure about how this happened. According to Facebook, the transition was supposed to have been completed over 10 days ago. How I started out with the old layout and was then transitioned to new is beyond me, but I am glad that it happened.

If it hadn’t, I might be griping about the new layout without realizing what the old one was like, now I have at least some perspective on both.

Understanding

photo credit: jelene

Now, I don’t want anyone to think I’m bashing the people who are against the new Facebook layout. I actually understand. I have an unusual advantage in that I’ve only been on the site for two days. They have literally had years to use the old layout and adapt to it.

Facebook, for many, is their primary means of communication with family and friends, it is how they plan their social lives. When you start messing with that, no matter what the reason, you are going to have problems.

When I think about these design changes, I remember an analogy that a friend told me years ago. He asked me to imagine if, while I was sleeping, someone had broken into my car and rearranged everything. Moving the ignition to the left, putting the gear shift on the steering wheel, switching the cup holders around, etc.

I’d be mad as Hell. It wouldn’t matter if he had come out with a giant printout proving why his system was better. I’ve been driving that car for years and I’m used to it eccentricities. Without them I would feel lost and I’d probably crash more than once trying to adapt.

Having done more than a few site redesigns over the years, I understand the frustrations of both users and the Facebook designers. The designers felt the need to upgrade and modernize the aging Facebook design while the users were perfectly comfortable with the old one.

The breakdown, from what I see, is not so much in the new layout itself, but how it was introduced. If adequate opportunity for feedback and improvement had been given, the rough edges could have been smoothed and the legitimate grips, which there are several, could have been ironed out.

Furthermore, with adequate testing and exposure, the switch out would have been less jarring and users would have been better prepared. The whole process coudl have been handled better and the lack of cooperation is evident in the ongoing dialog.

To me, the greatest symbol of this mess is the fact that the most common complaint users have about the new layout is not anything particularly wrong with it, just that it is unnecessary. In a way I have to agree with that. The new layout is nice to look at, but it really doesn’t add much to the site that I’ve found and it does seem to change some behaviors in a way users don’t like.

Still, Facebook does not seem ready to repent and such a change is almost impossible now. The reason is that Facebook knows something the complaining users don’t seem to realize, that Facebook has no reason at all to worry.

The Truth Comes Out

photo credit: lu_lu

The bitter truth is that Web sites have botched redesigns every day. Most of them never see this kind of protest or backlash.

The reason Facebook is different is because, when most sites screw up a relaunch, people vote with their feet. The Facebook users are not going anywhere, in fact, they’re using groups within Facebook to make their displeasure known.

Though there is at least some talk of switching to another social network, I think most people realize that the Facebook juggernaut will not be unseated any time soon. As long as friends and family use the service, so will the vast majority of the protesters.

If Twitter can survive rampant downtime and remain the number one microblogging service despite stiff competition, Facebook can survive this and remain the largest non-Myspace social network.

Facebook knows this all too well. Though they expect to lose some users, they know that vast majority of even the most ardent protesters will stick around, albeit begrudgingly.

They also know that, if they don’t innovate and take a few gambles, that they can be trumped by a new start up at any point. It is important to remember that Facebook itself was the upstart service just a few years ago, taking on well-entrenched competitors and taking names.

Innovate or die. Facebook gets that and that is why the old layout is not coming back. They would rather risk losing a small percentage of users now than becoming a dinosaur down the road.

Making a Difference

Rather than demanding the return of the old layout, which clearly is not happening, or asking to have the old one return as an option, which is not feasible from a maintenance standpoint, why not offer real feedback on the new layout and suggest actual ways to make it work better?

Here are a few select items I’ve gathered from people I’ve talked to:

• Make the “Wall” work the way it once did. Several people complained it was too much work to view what they wanted.
• Clicking on a “Top Friend” should go to that friends page, not their top friends list.
• The way images are displayed feels broken to many people. They need to be more prominent with less focus on the album covers.

The idea is that users need to stop demanding something that will not happen and start being constructive about the layout that they have. There is nothing to be gained from being hostile or combative with Facebook as a company, they are not going to be pushed around when they feel their future is on the line, but there may be room for small gains and changes that can have a serious impact on the site.

Conclusions

For me, the bottom line is this: Though I sympathize and understand those who are upset about the new Facebook layout, it is clear to me that backlash no longer fits the problem.

The time has come for the protesters to decide. They either have to live with the changes, leave the site or work to make improvements within the current system. If they vote with their feet, Facebook might reconsider. However, as long as users are signing in every day, Facebook isn’t going to care, even if some of the users are posting to anti-Facebook groups.

If the dialog doesn’t get more constructive soon, Facebook runs the risk of being the kind of high-drama center its users fled from.

But hey, if you’re into drama, Myspace is still taking new users…