The popular social networking site, Facebook, is to introduce new features to help support its ongoing growth. Founded in 2004, the site has seen a strong increase in membership as interest in social networking sites continues. The company is now planning to develop its role from a dating site into a full network tool similar to main rival MySpace.
Last year, Facebook made a number of changes to its layout that proved unpopular with users but these latest modifications are being introduced after feedback from thousands of members.
Mark Zuckerberg, the site's 22-year-old founder, is hoping to double membership levels within six months and has already managed to fight off a billion-dollar takeover from search engine Yahoo!. At present, Facebook has around 19 million active users, with an estimated three per cent increase each week.
"A lot of the changes are very subtle. We make small changes instead of huge things," explained Mr Zuckerberg.
The changes to the site include a simplified navigation process as well as the ability to track friends and family profiles. There will also be the introduction of portal pages to enable users to see groups they currently belong to as well as ones that may interest them.
