GregHay.com

I spent this week in San Fran training and getting up to speed with my new company and I was immediately struck by what is below. The bar of soap at the hotel!!!!!!!

No, I did not put the hole in it, someone was paid to design this bar of soap for the least amount of soap loss with each application. To quote the package:

“This innovative ergonomically shaped ‘waste reducing’ soap has been designed to eliminate the unused center of traditional soap bars.”

Which led me to question how useful it would be and if it would get me clean. The first morning, I’ll admit, it didn’t feel right. It felt too green, too forced and I cursed the hippies that designed it and sent pics home to laugh about it.

I think there’s nothing wrong with the old fashion way of getting clean, I would have even preferred a Sun Shower and Tupperware tub to the soap with a hole.

Which got me thinking about the new Facebook and all the complaining about the new design. So many people initially reacted with frustration and anger over their stuff being moved. (THERE’S A HOLE IN MY SOAP AND I’M MAD ABOUT IT!!!) But truth be told, the design and the soap turned out to be pretty cool.

Facebook has shifted with the demands of the web, towards a more real-time feel and it is reflected in this new design. The time-line of what is happening now makes a lot more sense than what is happening where, which was the way it was originally designed. The original Facebook layout fit what we were used to and instead of sites, people were the locations we were updated about, a Friend RSS feed if you will. But Facebook had to change to address the current shift brought about by Twitter and micro-blogging.

I am fully on board with these changes and my own behavior and browsing has changed because of the evolution of the real-time web. I wrote about my own change when I discussed moving away from Digg and towards the MicroPlaza tool. For me, I want to know what the internets is talking about now(!), I want to know what the discussion is today and yesterday matters a little less now than it did before.

Facebook is adopting the same principle. You may be upset now that you can’t see that someone threw a snowball at another friend 3 days ago, or that you earned X Mafia Wars points last week, but I ask, does that matter? I’d say no. I think the value of Facebook and all of these platforms moving forward is if they can convey the “now” of the web.

While I won’t be hunting down the “soap with a hole” in the deli on my block any time soon (probably because the fear of the guy suspending my egg and cheese privileges until I get the “hippy” out of my system far outweighs my motivation to have “green” soap) but I’ll gladly welcome the day when it comes.