New Facebook Features Exposed in Accidental Update

Facebook accidentally went live with a handful of prototype features earlier today, including a site-wide yet short-lived overhaul of Pages.
Roughly 45 minutes after the mistaken update, Facebook disabled the site, reverted back to its previous state and then tweeted apologetically about the downtime. But that brief span of time was enough for Facebook members and Page admins to get a sneak peak at new features in the works.
Facebook admitted to pushing features before their time.
“Also, some internal prototypes were exposed to people and resulted in us disabling the site briefly. It’s now back to normal,” read a tweet from Facebook.
So what were those prototypes exactly? Screenshots shared with us and surfaced through other media outlets suggest all of the following: new Facebook Pages (with Questions integration), a “Switch Accounts” feature for Page Admins, a new Memories feature that chronicles photos and status updates from years past and an “Outside World” filter for the News Feed.
What follows is a deeper look at what some Facebook users saw today.
Were you privy to these or other changes? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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New Facebook Pages

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Pages got a temporary facelift with a tab-free design — the navigation instead being placed on the left-hand side of the Page — that more closely resembles Facebook Place Pages and member Profiles. We also noticed that Questions were integrated into the Pages experience and that Facebook introduced a “Switch Accounts” feature for Page admins.
We initially thought it strange that new Facebook Pages would be released without an announcement from Facebook. Commenters agreed; many of you expressed displeasure at the idea that would Facebook would overhaul Pages without notifying you of the changes first.
When pressed for clarification specifically around Pages, a Facebook spokesperson shared the following statement: “While we are always experimenting with new features internally we are not making changes to Pages right now. Organizations invest a lot of time on their Facebook Pages because millions of people find them useful everyday. We remain committed to providing ways for Page owners to customize and control the experience on their Page. If we do make changes, we will provide partners with advance notice.”

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Memories

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Several users reported having access to a new “Memories” option listed below Photos in the left-hand menu on their Profile Pages.
A Mashable commenter said of the feature, “I was online during the glitch and also saw a new MEMORIES link under my profile pic. It’s gone now but I did get a sneak peek while it lasted. It allowed you to look back at status updates, photos, and new friends…giving a snapshot of each year I’ve been on FB.”
The Next Web reporter Courtney Myers saw the Memories option and described it in a similar fashion. “It showed options for jumping to photos grouped by years: 2010, 2009, 2008, etc. with complementing information like status dated status updates, the number of friends added per year, events attended and Facebook places check-ins,” she wrote.
Memories would make for a pleasant (hopefully) walk down memory lane, so we hope this features finds its way back to Profile Pages in the near future.
Via [Mashable]

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