At its annual f8 developer conference Thursday, Facebookannounced… wait for it… yes, another redesignof its site, along with new rules for sharing with friends.

 Users still trying to figure out the new integrated messaging service, the improved “lists controls,” and “top stories,” will soon see radically revamped profile pages, along with a legion of new Facebook apps that want to get you to share new information about yourself.  Will this just be the Facebook privacy crisis du jour?  Or has the company been scared straightby the threat of regulation, or even competition?

The biggest change Facebook announced is a new way to share information using third-party applications on the site. In the past, users who installed apps such as FarmVille or Horoscopes typically had a stream of pointless updates sent to their friends’ newsfeed under their name, leading to sheepish apologies to vaguely annoyed friends.

Under the new system, these app updates will go to a less prominent, real-time feed on the right-hand side of the page (called “Ticker”) and to newly designed profile pages (redubbed “Timelines”) where your friends can amble by and see what you’re up to if they so desire.  The theory seems to be that many users were turned off of appsin the past, but maybe they’ll be willing to share more on Facebook if the apps are a little less pushy.

For Facebook, of course, the point is for you to provide them more data about your life, which they can use to serve you ads you’ll be more likely to engage with (which makes them more money).  But there’s potentially real value here too, if people can discover ways to share their music-listening and cooking habits with friends in a perhaps lighter-touch way.

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But will users get it?  When they’re invited to install a new Spotify app, will they understand that what they’re listening to will be put into their friends’ Tickers and their own Timelines?  Will they even understand what Tickers and Timelines are? One of the problems Facebook has had in the past is that its constantly changing formats and privacy settings left users unclear about what they were sharing, and with whom.

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