Facebook to discontinue Network Pages

This post was updated at 6:42 PM PDT with comment from Facebook.

Facebook plans to remove its Network Pages feature.

In a warning message to users, Facebook has said it will soon be discontinuing Network Pages, through which members of a particular network can view and interact with a variety of data, such as Wall postings, marketplace listings, statistics on the most popular things in their network, and popular groups. In the same message, Facebook suggests the use of its Groups feature to connect with people around them.

This is a pretty interesting move, and I'm not really sure why Facebook is going in this direction. Using Groups is a fine method of communication between people who share specific interests, but Network Pages, on the other hand, are great for seeing what's popular in your network, which probably includes people with whom you would not otherwise be in a group. It is a good, consolidated view of things that are of direct concern and interest to people in that network.

Bringing popular posted items, groups, and marketplace listings together in one place is reason enough to keep the feature, but when you add in a lively discussion board and Wall posts that really help solve a lot of connection problems, I just don't understand the reasoning behind this decision.

Facebook could not be immediately reached for comment.

Update (Facebook's response):

"Facebook has decided to remove the Network Portals because we have found that most users tend to get network information from their feeds, such as News Feed and Mini-Feed, rather than navigating to the portals. Groups, Pages and users' feeds continue to enable users to connect with the people in their networks and discover the most relevant information."

[blurble]

Facebook is EFFED. Their marketing kiddies are as stupid as the Germans are for failing to market diesel cars. They think they know what's right and have taken "polls" showing how stupid the american citizen is.

[guttersnipe098]

Personally, if there isn't a Network Page, I see no use for facebook. Everything else can be done with a blog.

It's simple; put the Network Pages back up, or I'm never using Facebook again...

[mherstand]

Many people say "but no one ever used them." All that means is "I never saw a use for them." That's no reason to remove something that many people did find a use for. Check out the largest protest group to see many good arguments for keeping them:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=16497092026

[AspieMum]

I wanted to join a network but I live near Southampton and that's not covered by Networks anyway. I'd have had to join Portsmouth.

[ravcasleygera]

I'm in two months about this. On the one hand, as soon as geographical networks were introduced networks were at risk of becoming pointless - how meaningful is my membership of the "London" network, with over a million others? But I guess organisations, and smaller geographic units, still appreciate them. I can understand why they're making them less central to the design, but it would be a mistake to get rid of them entirely - it's one of the things which has always made facebook more real-world-based than myspace (they probably should never have allowed no-network members).