Last night it appears that Facebook decided to switch the way that guest lists are now viewed for individual events. Previously, you would have to click through individual pages to see who was attending an event. Frequently, deciding whether or not to attend an event is based on who will be in attendance. That’s why the guest list is one of the most visited sections of any event.

The only problem with the previous interface was that users had to click through multiple pages to view all of the guests that would be in attendance. While it generated more pageviews for Facebook, it made deciding whether or not to attend an event a much more time consuming process. From the advertising perspective I wonder why Facebook would decide to reduce pageviews from this specific area.

One reason that Facebook may have decided to reduce guest list replies to a single window was that click through rates were extremely low on these pages to begin with. Alternatively, the theory may be that improving the overall user experience in general, will lead to a general increase in long-term pageviews.

Ultimately I won’t know why they decided to make the switch but it does appear that it generates a better experience overall. Facebook continues to make subtle changes in their interface which should hopefully increase user engagement. While Facebook continue to perfect their user interface though, it appears as though this is detracting from the time spent on increasing revenue.

For example, Facebook could be investing more heavily in developing improved advertising metrics for tracking conversions of ads into new fans. Right now it’s impossible to determine how an individual fan was lead to a public profile. In the near future I would expect to upgrade their tracking system but for businesses that would like to take advantage of the advertising opportunities available on Facebook, it makes it challenging to operate when there are few ways to track where fans are coming from.

Regardless of the lack of advanced conversion metrics on public profiles, there are still plenty of ways for businesses to promote themselves on the site and that can’t continue if the users have a poor experience. In the end it’s a difficult balance between retaining users and developing more advanced tools for businesses. Do you like the upgrade to the event guest list? Do you think it makes events easier to use?