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Earlier today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stage at the San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center to announce a major revamp to the world’s largest social network at the company’s annual F8 Developer Conference. The big news is an evolved profile page which goes by the name timeline. Facebook was simply touching the surface when it unveiled a new real-time news feed, a subscribe feature, and an improved friends list over the past week.
Zuckerberg noted the information section of a profile page would generally only consume about the first five minutes of an in-person conversation. Though Facebook quickly grew to add news feeds, most posted items quickly get tucked away under the “older posts” button. The new timeline feature aims to let users tell a story of their life. A quick timeline found on the sidebar essentially extends from the day your were born to today. Users can filter though someone’s timeline by year and month.
While posted items enter a new feed with the current date and time, the new timeline lets users inject a story anywhere. A person can head back in time to add a picture of the day they were born, make notations for anniversaries, or just about anything other major life event.
Another notable addition includes a large cover photo, which complements a profile picture, for a personal touch. It appears as though the new chat system from earlier this year and the newly introduced real-time news feed will stick around in the sidebar. While sponsored ads currently appear in the sidebar, it is unclear whether Facebook intends to slip sponsored material into a timeline.
I spent sometime messing with the new timeline interface and I have to admit the new layout is gorgeous. Though it looks much unlike past versions of Facebook, it is a next step for evolution and innovation to progress. The notion of a news feed lacks emotion and sounds much like a technical term while a timeline has a more personal touch. As Zuckerberg noted on stage several times, the new Facebook profile page will tell the “story of your life.”
Links: Facebook Timeline
