Study Finds Facebook Users Dislike Timeline Format

Posted on May 16, 2012

Attensity has announced the results of its study which analyzed public reaction in social media to the new Facebook Timeline format for profile pages. Using Attensity Analyze, the company processed 138,572 public comments posted on Facebook, Twitter and blogs over a six-week period. The results fond 93% of comment contain negative sentiment toward the new Facebook Timeline.

Rebecca MacDonald, vice president of marketing at Attensity, says, "We were rather shocked at the degree of frustration expressed by Facebook users toward the new Timeline format. We knew from anecdotal evidence that many users - both individuals and businesses - were unhappy with it, but the results generated by Attensity Analyze show a degree of negative sentiment we hadn't anticipated, given that Facebook is still in the process of rolling out Timeline to individual users."

The study found that phrases like "Delete FB Account"; "Hate New Timeline"; "Timeline Forced Changes"; "Switch to Other Social Network"; and "Will Delete FB" appear frequently in many posts about the Facebook Timeline. You can read more about Attensity's findings here.