Facebook Unveils Timeline, Updated Open Graph 98
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook today announced a new Timeline feature and a new type of social app under its Open Graph. They're not available yet, but almost all the details are finally official."
MySpace 3.0? (Score:5, Funny)
The only thing missing from the new profile is the ability to set huge animated gifs as my background.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
They don't read anywhere else, or have any UI or UX pros on their staff, so chances are... yeah, they're going to be Myspace 3.0 in short order. Which is sad, because most of us left Ghettospace to get away from all the "virtual bling" fuckwittery.
Re: (Score:2)
The only thing missing from the new profile is the ability to set huge animated gifs as my background.
Yes! And while they're about it, how about reviving the blink tag?
Re: (Score:1)
Actually, that is/was one of the nice things about Facebook - it didn't allow the horrible customizations to one's profile like MySpace did. But it *did* used to offer more customizations [none of them as bad as MySpace]. They have removed most of the ability to make profiles look non-standard, much to the frustration of some users [but not me!]. While their new ticker is not good, I do think that the FB devs are very aware that they don't want FB profiles to look as bad as MySpace ones have.
social replaced religion (Score:3)
in the old days people would go to a religious place to think about their importance and place in the universe. in the 21st century you show off your entire life to the world on the internet
Re: (Score:2)
As for going to a religious place, not everyone believes in that nonsense.
Re: (Score:2)
I use FB (yea yea) but you'll be hard pressed to find much about me on my profile other then the fact that I listen to Metal and like photography
No I wouldn't describe the photos in detail on my profile either
Re: (Score:2)
I use FB (yea yea) but you'll be hard pressed to find much about me on my profile other then the fact that I listen to Metal and like photography. Not everyone on FB posts their whole life on there, the things I post are things I want the world to see, such as a new song by a small band or some pictures I took (which are creative commons). .
With your user name it's either that or you're a robot.
Re: (Score:2)
Facebook Timeline... (Score:1)
Forgive me if my memory is failing me, but didn't Facebook HAVE a timeline about 5ish years ago? You know, back when you could do quizes on your friends' interests, you put your home address up because only your University friends would see it, and there were NO RELATIVES?
There is more. (Score:2)
You might also want to include:
Facebook Adds TV & Movies to the Stream [mashable.com]
Spotify Comes to Facebook [mashable.com]
Yahoo Hooks Up With Facebook for Socially Curated News [mashable.com]
Saw that, want to leave now (Score:4, Insightful)
It's simple. The companies FB has partnered with to mine that data want their jobs to be easier. So it's now up to the users to put the connections in there that they either couldn't (due to too much noise, legal concerns, what have you) or didn't want to spend the money on developing. That's what this is all about. Make it voluntary and in most instances you've made it legal. Make it necessary and you have the users doing the hard work for you.
Given how much effort it takes just to get a simple feed of stuff from friends, the way it used to be, I have the feeling that this portends the end of usefulness for the facebook. Perhaps the Oatmeal is right, by 2014 it's nothing but old women playing games who have the time to put those connections together.
Re: (Score:3)
Is there ANYONE else who finds the idea of putting your whole life in plain view for the world to see a good idea?
I mean before it was bad enough, "Everyone can see your pictures" bla bla bla, but this?
Becoming a stalker just got easier.
Re: (Score:2)
Good point. I'll just go hide in my cave from here on out, shooting anyone who gets near enough to look at the rock covering it.
What! Are you a Muslim?
Re: (Score:2)
putting your whole life in plain view for the world to see
These people need to, somehow, validate their existence in the universe, i.e. they need to know that someone gives a crap that they exist and what they do. The unfortunate part of all this is that there are several hundred million people that have this mental illness...
Re: (Score:2)
Hate to break it to you, but most people do have at least a few people who care they exist and are interested in what they do. They call them family and friends.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
When they sit still enough and stop reverting, changing position or being burried under more stuff...
Re: (Score:2)
I agree, which is why I submitted the request to have my account removed yesterday. It's just too much BS in my browser anymore, which is why I left MySpace years ago for facebook.
Time to invest... (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
uh that would have been back when google+ hit 20million users in a ridiculously small amount of time, not now. You're a bit late now :)
Re: (Score:2)
Their stock didn't go up due to that. In fact it went down more than $100 a share, or16%, from the time google+ launched to that milestone.
Stock price measures many things ... (Score:2)
Their stock didn't go up due to that. In fact it went down more than $100 a share, or16%, from the time google+ launched to that milestone.
Stock price measures many things. Market factors, industry factors and company factors. The first two are beyond Google's control. The phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats" is often used to say not to read too much into a rising stock price when everyone else is also going up. The same is true when everyone is going down.
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks for finally owning up, Steve.
Re: (Score:1)
I'm not sure why anyone thinks FB should know where you are, but there are people w
Re: (Score:2)
Facebook does not know my real email address, the contents of my address book, my phone number, or where I'm eating lunch.
Maybe not - but it's pretty trivial to obtain, for those they sell your data to. Facebook has a limited amount of data that you type in. Add in login times and ip address/es. Others data sources (the sort that Facebook sells information to, can add to, and validate that information. And proxies are only as anonymous as any of the routing hops. Then there's your Fffacebook fffriends (any of them use MS live?)
That's tin foil hat stuff of course and should be dismissed as paranoia.... Except it's also abilitie
Re: (Score:2)
Here's the primary problem with this: Uncontrolled Content Publishing
Hey, welcome to the internet era. We still have the same amount of useful information; what we gained was a shit-ton of noise (my comments included).
The internet has made me hate people way more than I ever thought possible.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Everytime I see someone complaining about people annoying them on Facebook it cracks me up, because the people that are annoying you are people you intentionally befriended. These are your peers. Perhaps turning away from your computer screen for a few minutes for a nice long gaze into the mirror would be useful.
Re: (Score:1)
(*)This example is not actually true
Re: (Score:2)
I don't have any posts like those on my newsfeed. Your problem is the people you call your friends, not Facebook.
[Well I did once have someone who posted "Going to the fridge" and another who did nothing but play stupid farmyard games. But they were rapidly hidden. Just like email, the tools are there to improve the signal to noise ratio.]
My GF says.. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
And does your girlfriend have any actual data to back that up or is this like when nerds say "i don't know anyone who uses windows" to try to claim that linux was a success on the desktop?
Re: (Score:1)
I was listening in to his FB conversation with his GF since she hadn't explicitly blocked it, even tho he had, and that's pretty much what she said.
Other than the part about STDs he failed to mention.
I mean, seriously, use a rubber. Especially for furry "action", ok?
(yes, newfacebook is pervy)
Re: (Score:3)
And does your girlfriend have any actual data to back that up or is this like when nerds say "i don't know anyone who uses windows" to try to claim that linux was a success on the desktop?
You're misquoting me - what I said was I don't associate with anyone who does Windows - I give them spare change and leave my old tech on the nature strip for them. I just don't associate with them - there's a difference.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Deja vu. The interface that everyone is now missing, they were complaining about when it was new last year. People hate change initially, then get used to the new status quo.
Re: (Score:2)
I still hated the last interface when they switched to the new one. I did not get used to it, and had to click "by date" every goddamn time I logged on. Now I can't make that complaint since they completely removed "by date" as an option.
Terrible.
Re: (Score:2)
"Everybody hates the new layout and are leaving". Seems odd FB would make such a change right as Google+ registration opens.
Isn't FB planning on some sort of a public share offering soon - won't that be when the whole venture starts to generate an income? Maybe they're just trying to protect and extremely speculative investment - whereas Google+ could go bellyup tomorrow without making much difference to Google's core business.
Myspace is back? (Score:3)
Does it come with auto-on 20 second clips of poor bitrated versions of favourite songs?
You are the product (Score:1)
Not the consumer. Google or Facebook, it doesn't matter.
Re: (Score:2)
Very true, but I'm willing to put up with a certain amount of crap for a free service that can be used for education and entertainment. MySpace stepped over that line pretty quick years ago, and now facebook has just crossed the line. Google+, however, isn't as bad. Yet.
Re: (Score:2)
Trouble is very few of my friends are on Google+. Where people hang out is far more important than features of the site.
Re: (Score:1)
Ok fine, whatever... "I'm the product."
BUT if they don't retain me, they no longer have a product to sell to their "customer's."
This whole "you are the product" argument is just plain dumb. FB and Google and everyone else still need to do work to keep their product happy. When they are doing that, then you are the customer.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess you're cool on slashdot as long as you complain about everything Facebook does, regardless of whether it is good or bad. So keep complaining about how it is getting too much like MySpace, or Twitter. Keep complaining about how Facebook is further diminishing your privacy each time a new feature is added. Be sure to include some conspiracy theory. Most importantly, threaten to close your account. Then you'll be really cool.
Complaints can actually be well-founded, and those who dislike the subject o
Re: (Score:1)
Complaints can actually be well-founded, and those who dislike the subject of a news story are just as welcome to contribute their opinion.
My point is that there were no valid complaints. In all of the posts before mine, it was the typical knee jerk reaction. Everyone complained, but no one provided any real argument as to why. You were the first one to provide something of substance, about it being "time consuming". Although, I don't see much substance in it. You can post status updates normally, since newer items will be appear at the top unless you chose to weight them.
Zuckerberg won't read the post, but others will, and ultimately he has investors, employees, and business partners who can be rattled by widespread criticism and rejection of new functionality that's too unpleasant. If nobody talked about things they disliked, or expressed the objections you resent so vociferously, then no one would learn otherwise, and things would simply die off without an apparent cause, or stupidity would be perpetuated.
Maybe, maybe not. It is likely that they get their feedback from people
Re: (Score:1)
Thanks for proving my point about being cool, by showing me how you can swear on-line, and suggesting I do the same.
I didn't actually prove anything there, save that I was personally irritated by a euphemism for a curse word. Constructive complaints are being created 'round the world by tech journalists paid to express lucid, well-constructed thoughts and opinions. I'm a geologist by profession. The byzantine intricacies of social media, and Facebook's ongoing "bad little boy who acts guilty for being
Re: (Score:1)
I'm not sure why you are comparing a forum, or e-mail, or RSS to social networking.
similar feature (Score:1)
I love how it lets you listen in to friends chats (Score:3, Interesting)
Even if you only "know" both of them thru some passing knowledge, you can see their private chats and messages so long as 1 of the 2 or (for multi person messages, at least 1) of them has not blocked it explicity.
Oh wait, I meant "dislike".
Re: (Score:2)
How do you do that then?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
US version only. Click on Friends - check subscriptions - enable only those you want enabled. Shows up on Home in the upper right corner.
Note if one friend has permissions (by default) enabled, you still get to hear both friends even tho one turned it off.
Re: (Score:2)
I don't see anything to do with chats there.
Re: (Score:1)
You have to have chat on - if you disabled it (because it's really annoying) you won't see it.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
of course chat doesn't equal wall posts.
However, multi-person chats and chats between two people that are friends without permissions both turned off to you do in fact show up.
Had fun for a couple of days repeating what I overheard in my status so that my friends realized the whole world could hear them - or their moms might find out ...
I can attest to this (Score:2)
But apparently FB cleaned this up; I haven't been able to replicate it today.
The best part; ppl I warned about it DIDN'T CARE if
Re: (Score:1)
Bells&whistles or improving privacy features? (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Walls are public. If you want to send a message to a user privately, send them a message. Durr.
Amid all the FUD... (Score:4, Interesting)
... is the really, really slick new timeline features. I'm having a hard time coming up with anything negative to say about the new timeline based layout. For those of you that have enabled it, what are your thoughts? I'm actually very impressed, and I think Facebook just leveled from my perspective.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm having a hard time coming up with anything negative to say about the new timeline based layout. For those of you that have enabled it, what are your thoughts?
I don't use Facebook, so maybe I'm not the best person to answer your question. But, I was there today and attended several sessions, so I saw a lot more about how they are thinking about this stuff. It is really slick. From a technical and UI point of view, it's a really nice combination of the existing Facebook and Twitter and Google+.
The abstract purpose of the timeline was made lucidly clear, and it's pretty obvious that, if you don't think too much about how it is appealing to essentially ones na
Re: (Score:2)
If you think that's good, you should check out Memolane [memolane.com]. They've been doing this with Facebook and quite a few other sites for a while.
Re: (Score:2)
It's slick, but really who's going to use it? Would you set it up and then expect all of your friends and family to go and look at your personal timeline? If you're a celebrity, maybe there's some value in paying someone else to set it up for you as a promotional tool. However, I suspect for the vast majority of users they will neither have the inclination to set it up at all, nor the look at anyone else's timeline. It seems to be gimmicky to me. The first few people to set it up will get some people l
Re: (Score:2)
As I understand it, it's not on anybody to "use" - it will be the default layout for all user profiles going forward, so everybody will get that for free. Anybody using FB to upload pictures, do checkins, updating their status' and whatever else will automatically benefit from the feature. Doing nothing but enabling the timeline for my profile, the default items on the timeline that they displayed were actually very relevant to events in my life, gave me a sense of nostalgia, and in general made me feel
Re: (Score:2)
Again the question is who is going to use it? Who will want to go and see your timeline other than you? It still seems to be a feature that's slick but ultimately not very relevant. It might be nice when you feel nostalgic and want to see the highlights of your Facebook life but beyond that it seems mostly useful to people you probably don't want looking at it. In other words, it's most useful to people who don't know you.
Fancy... (Score:2)
It's the kind of thing I'd love to see an open version of, that I could run on my own servers and leave to my children. Sadly, filling in all that data for FB's use just ain't going to happen.
So The Truman show has finally become a reality... (Score:1)