Facebook's New Profile Page - The Timeline

[H.O.D 0]

Facebook has done it again - it has changed the profile page for its users. If I'm not wrong this is still in early beta phase, but I could access it by becoming a "Facebook Developer" as it is available to all Facebook developers. The new profile page is known as the "timeline" and it is quite refreshing from the old profile page. It begins by showing a large photo known as the "cover photo" of the user. Beneath this is the usual profile picture (display picture). The huge cover photo is definitely interesting although not everyone might be pleased to see such a large photo of themselves for the public to see.The most interesting aspect of the timeline is that it allows friends to see your complete information - whatever activity you've done on Facebook from the beginning is shown on a single page. What's more, it even has a place to put your baby picture in so that people can follow your life from the moment you were born. Except in the USA and UK, I think there might not be many other countries where the people will willingly put their baby pics on Facebook! Sharing too much info, even with friends, can prove to be risky. But that's what good about the timeline: it offers an "option" to share, but doesn't force you to put anything in. As for the rest of the features on the timeline, all your stories, such as your status updates, wall posts, comments, likes, etc. are neatly arranged according to the month and year. So you can easily know what you did in a particular month, or when you added someone as a friend, etc. People with slower internet connections might find it difficult to view the new timeline because it loads slowly, and the pictures it contains are quite big. So that might prove to be a disadvantage of some sort, but all things considered, it is indeed a useful addition to Facebook.This will slowly but surely become the default profile page for everyone in a few weeks. It would be fun trying to see how everyone configures their timeline! Are you ready to face the change?

[mahesh2k 0]

As far as i know they're not yet ready for rolling out this change. The reason is there that facebook has new lawsuit against them because they used name timeline. So most likely this change will not be rolled out unless they settle this in or out of the court. Till then this feature is only for the developer access and for those who got the beta preview invite. Other users are not yet using this feature and will not notice the difference as well. They can however see the changes on profile which are under this new change.

To be hones this looks more like orkut and myspace like theme change to me. With addition of timeline posts and other stuff. I like the top banner type thing which people can use for some eye candy display. ABout.me was the one having such style of profile. I think now it's available in facebook makes about.me go down in popularity. In any case professional profile look is surely a good idea. I just hope that they don't more stalking features on their list. Because the stock ticker style with chatting stuff is already making things weird for most of us. This timeline can be controlled if you hide the old posts. If you do that then surely it'll hide the posts else it'll not be possible to hide them and will surely appear in the past posts from users. Worry cause for those who are using the profile for more than 3 to 5 years of facebook usage.

For those who want to get around this timeline and other new changes, they can use better facebook app. This app has extensions for browsers like firefox, chrome etc. It makes privacy much controlled and you can also control some elements of timeline as well.

[H.O.D 0]

Wow I had no idea that Facebook was in trouble due to naming their page as "timeline". Well it's not a big matter for Facebook to settle in court. They've done it before and they'll do it now as well. The court issue won't be a huge thing for Facebook. What they will be concerned about is the kind of response they get for this new timeline. Most people wouldn't like their profiles to be "stalked" easily by other people, even if they happen to be their friends. So it would be easy for the users if they had some easy options to control what appears on their timeline and what does not.

[manuleka 0]

Wow I had no idea that Facebook was in trouble due to naming their page as "timeline". Well it's not a big matter for Facebook to settle in court. They've done it before and they'll do it now as well. The court issue won't be a huge thing for Facebook. What they will be concerned about is the kind of response they get for this new timeline. Most people wouldn't like their profiles to be "stalked" easily by other people, even if they happen to be their friends. So it would be easy for the users if they had some easy options to control what appears on their timeline and what does not.

yes privacy issues has always been a consistent matter for Facebook development, but i guess that's why it's good to do some research on the tool to know it's setting options before accepting or using it!

this revolves around what use wants to be displayed on their page, to whom it will be displayed to! i think a lot of Facebook users don't realize the importance behind privacy settings until someone screws up with their page (esp. personal information)

if i recall correctly, bebo.com network had some feature (or maybe still has - haven't used it in a few years now) around that line... where you can see your timeline/or taskline on your page (or friends pages)... especially with media uploads...