Those of you desperate to see the new-look Facebook (you know - it's that social networking site we glued to six months ago) can do so now - the test site is at new.facebook.com.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg is to officially announce the site's redesign at its second annual F8 developers' conference on July 23, but if you login at the normal site and then go to the new site, you'll see how it will look.
The visual changes are modest - a slightly more spaced out layout and news feed, more emphasis on the navigation tabs and (weirdly) no ads, which goes a long way to explaining the space. I'm quite sure that won't stay that way though.
The sidebar stays fixed when you navigate between your photos, newsfeed, profile and apps (which they have decided to call 'boxes' so as not to deter non-techies?). Supposedly you'll be able to customise your own tabs eventually, but this version is still in beta at the moment so expect more features to come. Photos are given much more prominence, which is great.
Facebook has an advantage in redesigning its site - in that it was pretty good to start with. Few social networking sites have dealt with such a stream of updates and features in such an uncluttered way and the simplicity of the site is one of its most compelling features. (Privacy settings notwithstanding - those are stupidly complex...)
Verdict?
• Update: Some people have had trouble getting to the new site. Log in in at the old facebook.com and then go to to www.new.facebook.com to see the changes. If that still doesn't work, @okihumus below suggested adding the Facebook developer application and trying again. And if that still doesn't work, give up and wait until July 23...
