Twitter's CEO said he would do something about the less than user-friendly look of the social network, and it looks like the company is trying to make good on his promise: A new Facebook-looking Twitter profile page has leaked to Mashable.

According to Mashable, Twitter is testing a major facelift for its profile page, which looks a lot like Facebook or Google+. The social media news outlet has it on good authority, because on Tuesday, the company's assistant features editor Matt Petronzio spotted a huge update on his own Twitter profile.

Twitter commonly tests updates with a randomized pool of users -- so this scoop might have just been pure luck (or maybe Twitter was trying to send an unofficial message to worried stockholders).

The new Twitter page is a big change from the old one. Instead of appearing in a stream, Tweets appear as differently-shaped content "cards" -- a la Google Plus -- and the profile information is displayed on the right hand side.

Other changes include different categories for viewing tweets, including the normal Twitter stream, a followers category, favorites, and list view -- along with a view category called "Photos/Videos" that presumably Twitter will be using to highlight content on the social media network that includes more than text.

The new homepage also adds more color, more space, and more of a generic social media network look to its profiles. Will the facelift work?

Twitter is probably hoping so, after its first earnings report scared off investors earlier this month. The biggest problem for Twitter, highlighted by its first report as a publically owned company, is user retention and engagement.

Twitter has always been somewhat of a niche social network: the 140 character limit in itself is enough to ward off long-winded users, but the larger problem is a tough learning curve to fully take advantage of the network. While Facebook has basic actions like "post" and "comment," which has attracted the largest social media user base in the world -- even the technically un-inclined and old -- Twitter's amalgam of tweeting, retweeting, direct messaging, favoriting, following, and hashtags can be intimidating to new users.

No wonder there were signs of slowing growth in the company's first quarterly report, where in the last quarter of 2013 Twitter only added 9 million new monthly users, compared to 16 million each quarter in early 2013.

Responding to the problem in an earnings conference call, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo admitted that "There's a lot we can do to significantly improve the user experience," adding that "We believe the changes we're making will lead to a much more satisfying user experience."

At least so far, it appears that the update to Twitter's home page is only a facelift -- though adding a default photo/video category (which is available as a filter in many third-party Twitter apps) will likely catch the eyes of meme-hungry social media users.

However, it's yet to be seen if the massive UI update (if it, indeed, goes into effect) keeps more users on the page while they learn how the somewhat esoteric social media system works - or if it just alienates the power users that want nothing but their tweets.

Will Twitter's new look help the company become more like Facebook, or will it have more of a Google+ effect? Let us know what you think in the comments.

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