San Francisco - Social networking site Facebook unveiled a
redesigned web site Monday after suing German rival studiVZ that
Facebook claimed stole its previous look and interface.
'We believe that our success thus far has been directly related
to the unique look and feel of both the site and user interface, and
are very disappointed that StudiVZ has unfairly used our creativity,
innovation and effort by building a 'clone' site to compete directly
against us,' said deputy general counsel Mark Howitson. 'Ultimately,
we are supporters of innovation, not imitation.'
The lawsuit was presented Friday in federal court in California.
StudiVZ denied the charges and asked for a declaratory judgement at
the district court level in Stuttgart, Germany.
The site has more than 10 million registered members in Germany,
Austria and Switzerland - countries where Facebook has failed to gain
the same level of success it enjoys in the United States. StudiVZ is
an abbreviation of the German expression Studentenverzeichnis or
Studienverzeichnis, which means students' directory.
With the new redesign, Facebook has reduced its emphasis on
personal profiles and made the news feed the primary fixture on its
landing page. The new design gives users a quick update screen in
which they can easily post short items. Recent figures show that
Facebook had nearly 125 million unique users visiting the site in
May, ahead of the 115 million users registered by MySpace.com.
USA
Your Talkback on this Story