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Facebook users will be able to "start exploring" the site's controversial new redesign on July 14, founder Mark Zuckerberg's flacks announced yesterday, through one of their typically annoying Facebook updates. (Have they never heard of email in Palo Alto?) A full, official launch will come a week later, in time for Zuckerberg's keynote address at the company's F8 event, a gathering for developers. Facebook had originally announced it would launch its redesign in early April, but that was before independent Facebook-application makers got a look at the changes and completely freaked out.

Facebook pushed the launch to June, and Zuckerberg relented, letting the widgetmakers have their way with the redesign, which people close to the project have called "his baby." Then, proving that a platform needn't be nearly as popular, important, or functional as a real operating system to experience ongoing delays in development, Facebook delayed the rollout further, this time into July.