Continuing its efforts to offer a more visual experience to its users, Facebook is now testing a new way to display photos with a revamped format.

The last major update Facebook made to its photos was in September 2010 when it adopted the lightbox style – which means that photos are shown on an overlay instead of on a new page. More recently, Facebook increased the size of images appearing in News Feeds.

During testing, photos uploaded to the social network will be presented larger while making sure that the information and conversation are still visible. The new design is similar to Google+ in that the captions and comments are placed to the right of the image rather than below it.

Facebook is trying to put more focus on the photo and the conversation around it than on its calls to action. However, while popular options – such as Like, Comment, and Share – are still visible on the right side, you can also take action by hovering over the image where you’ll have an option to Like or tag the image.

The new design would offer a much cleaner interface than the existing one, which would better align with the site’s overall focus on images. Inside Facebook points out that according to public status updates and comments from employees, Facebook is talking with professional photographers for feedback.

There’s no word on when or if this feature will be rolled out to the entire user base, but it would certainly benefit companies – like travel sites, photographers, and restaurants – that rely heavily on visuals to draw in customers.

[Via: Inside Facebook, Image credit: Horia Varlan]