We got wind of these new Facebook Photos features some months ago around the end of September. And while some users have had this feature for a while, we were beginning to wonder why Facebook was delaying a general roll-out.
However, Facebook did confirm yesterday that the new photo viewer was on its way to all users soon; and tonight, we're seeing this new interface from several accounts.
One major benefit, from Facebook's perspective, is that users will be able to browse through many photos in the lightbox layer without disrupting the underlying page and "losing their place." Other features include hi-res photos, photo-download links and bulk tagging options.
In fact, as we noted last fall, many of these feature upgrades strongly mirror recent changes to Flickr's own UI during the summer of 2010.
Along with Tag Suggestions, a.k.a. nascent facial recognition technology, Facebook's photo offering, which has long been a distinguishing factor of the social network, is remaining strong and competitive.
Check your Facebook account to see if you have the new interface; if you don't have it tonight, expect it to come over the next couple weeks.