Is Facebook Testing a New Way to Post Status Updates?

Space is important, and on Facebook, about 15-20% of the News Feed is currently occupied by the status update field. Is that too much? Or is Facebook’s newest tweak meant to let users publish updates from any page on the site?

As you can see in the photo above, a “compose” icon is sitting to the left of my name at the top of the screen. When I click on it, an overlay status update box is displayed and the rest of the page fades out.

Is this a test or is it going to become a permanent fixture on the site? We’ll let you know as soon as we hear more.

Update: A Facebook spokesperson has confirmed to BestTechie that the new button is part of a small test the website is running.