Review of Facebook’s Timeline Feature

Previously, we posted a review of several new features that Facebook has recently added, most notably, Top Story, Subscriptions, and Lists. However, you may have noticed that we did not include any info about another popular Facebook feature, Timeline. Timeline is a bit more complex, so in today’s post we will cover Timeline fully and detail some of the features that it offers.


When you first login to your Facebook account, you may not have Timeline activated as of yet. This is because it is not yet available, but will be soon. However, you can sign up for the Timeline feature using some simple steps. While logged in, navigate to the URL http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline. This page is an official Facebook page, provided by Facebook, that lists some details about the new Timeline feature, what it’s about, and what it does. If you decide that you would like to use Timeline, scroll down towards the bottom of the page, and click the Sign Me Up button.

Timeline Sign Up for Facebook

Timeline is not only a new Facebook feature, but something that will be a major Facebook feature. It revolves around three major things now: Cover, Stories, and Apps, but Facebook will likely grow Timeline in the future. Let’s start out by detailing Cover, the exterior to Timeline.

Cover


The above photo is an example of a Facebook Cover. The Cover portion of timeline is mostly made up of one, featured picture that you choose to represent yourself and your Timeline. Aside from that, the Cover also contains your default profile picture, name, and some basic information about yourself. There are also some links to other Facebook pages, such as Friends, Photos, and Likes. Basically, the cover is just a nicely designed outer shell for the Timeline itself.

Stories



The Stories section is the heart of Facebook’s Timeline feature. A better name for it, however, might be Collage. Stories works by allowing Facebook users to highlight their favorite content and add it to their Timeline. This content can be posts, photos, and other items that you commonly use on Facebook.

From here, Facebook simply presents this data as a Timeline. Thus, once Timeline is actually released, it will likely have several sorting options and navigation options, but for the most part, be chronological. Similar to the way Facebook uses thumbs up to track likes, it will use stars to control items in Timeline.

Apps


Facebook has become majorly app driven, which is why developers have integrated an Apps feature into the new Timeline feature. Now, the apps that you use on Facebook will be able to display recent activity and other app activity on your Timeline. For example, if you are using the Spotify app, and you listen to a song, Spotify and Facebook may add the news that you listened to that song to Timeline.

The integration level for Facebook and App developers, however, is going to be even more integrated. Thus, even if you are not logged into your Facebook account via the Facebook website, but use another website that is a partner of Facebook, or has an integrated Facebook app, your info for that website or app may post recent activity and information to your Timeline. That is my guess, but we will know more once Facebook releases Timeline.

Timeline

Overall, Timeline seems like a good addition to Facebook’s growing list of projects. However, with something as broad as Timeline, there will likely need to be many customization and privacy options, specific to Timeline; or else, Facebook may be again, revamping all of their settings in order to suit Timeline. Is this a positive move for Facebook? Will you be using the Timeline feature? Leave a comment!
Source: online-tech-tips.com