Facebook has been around for a while, and for many has become a source of nostalgic memories for those scanning through older profile pictures, party albums and other content added a few years ago. If you did anything spectacular in the last few years, no doubt it will have ended up on Facebook.
As what might be described as a response to this, a new feature is arriving across Facebook – Timeline, a profile viewing format touted as a way to tell the user’s life story through their interaction with the social networking site. Don’t worry about your embarrassing photos and other information not normally slapped on the front of your profile – Timeline goes public a week after activation, a grace period designed to encourage users to fix up their profile before people see their less favourable moments.
Facebook announced Timeline a while back, though it was only available to developers. Back then we figured a way to get it to work if you weren’t a developer, though now the new feature is rolling out worldwide to everyone.
Timeline radically reorganises the layout and look of a user’s profile page, altering the content shown to include a broader range of content throughout the profile’s existence. Facebook themselves describe the new feature as ‘an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments. It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run.’
With regards to music and other activities, the profile describes the many activities and actions which are linked in to the user’s profile through existing services, such as geolocation features, interacting with applications in order to produce a graphical output that is publicly displayed at the user’s whim.
The new profile went live first in New Zealand a few days ago, and worldwide today, with users worldwide experiencing the more open Facebook. However, questions have been raised by commenters as to just how open the new profile will be, for purposes of privacy, say, during those tricky job applications or those applying for a more prestigious education. Either way, it’s really worth checking out, so visit our guide or this Facebook blog entry which gives some good starting tips for Timeline here.
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