Facebook’s new Timeline profile structure became available for everyone late last week and for the first time in a long time, I’m actually psyched about a Facebook decision. Timeline was introduced back in September, but now it’s available to everyone. In case you haven’t seen the new design yet, here’s Facebook’s introduction video.
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The first major change is the new cover. This 851 x 315 pixel image is at the top of the page and sets the tone for your profile. While Facebook suggests that you use an image from your life, people are already getting creative with it. Your profile picture overlaps the cover, so there is plenty of room for creative types to flex their muscles. If you’re so inclined, Dave Demuth of Evad Design has the dimensions and a Photoshop template for download, while Sune Adler Miltersen has some ideas to get you started, including my favorite below.
Several websites have also stepped up to fill this new niche to create Facebook backgrounds for you. CoverCanvas makes a collage of your profile photos to make a cover and works very well. Cover Photoz and My Facebook Cover offer a variety of covers as well.
Moving on to the timeline itself, Facebook has done something remarkable with the new structure. Forget how you used to think of your profile, when it just addressed current events. Now, it’s opened up to more fully explore your past. Facebook has essentially repurposed the profile page into a digital storybook of the user’s life. By adding life events to the mix and allowing them to be added retroactively, friends can get a sense of the user’s life. We already had the start and end of relationships and jobs, but now you can go into your past and mark where you lost 100 pounds or got a new car or broke your arm when you were seven years old.
They’ve really put some thought into this, allowing you to add photos onto events, place those events and pictures on an easily accessible map, and letting friends look back in the timeline by month and year. This could easily become a more naturally organized online replacement for photo albums, with social comments along the way.
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Of course, with this added information comes privacy concerns. Facebook has added privacy controls to all these changes, which is great in theory, though the company has a far from perfect track record in this area. Ultimately, each user has to decide how much they’re interested in sharing in this new format and needs to be vigilant with their friends’ sharing of their information as well. As exciting as this influx of information is to see, it opens up new data-mining possibilities that make many (including myself, to an extent) nervous. Facebook has also added a back-end improvement into the mix. Each user now has access to their recent actions, including those not on your public timeline. So, if you commented on a friend’s status three days ago but don’t remember whose it was, you can go back and find it. Think of it as Facebook’s version of your internet history. You can also use this tool to change the privacy setting on any item.
So far, the highest hurdle to reading the new Timeline format seems to be the double-column format. It’s counter intuitive until you realize that the two columns are joined at the middle of the page, with order indicated by pointers to the center line. I’m not sure how Facebook could have improved this, but it’s easily the biggest complaint I’ve seen among my friends. The new Facebook Timeline isn’t just for the site’s desktop version. For the first time in recent memory, the site’s design is uniform over different platforms, including the mobile site, Android app, and as of this morning, the iPhone app as well. (They’re still working on the iPad version and say an update is forthcoming.)
Facebook Timeline is currently offered as an opt-in change, with a seven-day trial period to get used to the changes before going live. The company has said, though, that eventually this change will be mandatory and all users will be moved over. Calling the Timeline revolutionary is probably hyperbolic, but these changes are more than just cosmetic; they will change the way you use Facebook.
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