Facebook Timeline Becoming Mandatory For All Users
The Huffington Post l Catharine Smith
01/24/2012


The winds of change are blowing across Facebook's international network of over 800 million profiles.

On Tuesday, Facebook announced in an updated blog post that its radically revamped profile design, called "Timeline," will become the mandatory format for all users "over the next few weeks."





The social network first unveiled the Timeline, a media-rich profile page designed to tell the story of the user's life in reverse chronological order from present day to the user's date of birth, at the company's f8 conference in September.

Since the feature debuted, users could upgrade their profile by "liking" the Facebook Developer app and accessing the platform as a developer. The Timeline officially became available for all users to try out on December 15.





But the changes will soon become permanent. If you haven't tried out the new Timeline yet, you'd better get acquainted with it.

According to the Facebook Blog, users will have a weeklong grace period to try the new layout, which has the potential to make your online life more public.

"Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline," reads the Facebook Blog. "When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else sees it."









Last week Facebook announced the rollout of 60 new "frictionless" apps (plus more to come), developed to publicize more of users' activities to their friends.

To quote my colleague Jason Gilbert, "'Frictionless' apps are so named because they do not require the user to take any action in order for the app to share its information to Facebook -- the sharing occurs automatically and instantaneously after you give the app permission to do so."

For example, if the user reads a story via the Washington Post's social app, and has granted that app access to the Timeline, that story will appear in the user's news ticker and will be posted to his or her Timeline for friends to see.

There are, however, a number of new privacy settings that users can enable to restrict the amount of sharing by these new apps. Check out Jason Gilbert's run-down of the new settings (here).




"We want to design a place that feels like your home. Where you tell story online is very personal. You spend a lot of time curating it. We want to make timeline a place you're proud to call your home," Zuckerberg said of the Timeline at the f8 conference.

"It's a completely new aesthetic for Facebook. It gives you the ability to curate all your stories so you can express who you really are."





If you don't have the new Timeline-style profile yet, you can visit Facebook's Timeline introductory page to learn about the new features and convert your profile now.

Or, you can wait until you see Facebook's announcement appear at the top of your personal profile.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/24/facebook-timeline_n_1228800.html

Another stupid reason why I refuse to sign up for Facebook. :rolleyes:

I like the TL better than what it used to be, it looks neater

I just switched mine over to the TL. I do think users should've been given the option of how they wanted to keep their profiles, but I guess we'll all get used to it in time.

...in other words - it greatly diminishes security, reduces your ability to control who can see how much of what you put up, and gives complete control of your account to any "app" that you allow

I'm one of these still holding out (I still have the old profile layout). I'm really not looking forward to when I'm forced to change over to it... Blah.

I'm with you Allison. Frankly I hate the timeline thing over on Facebook.

I like it. I switched to it as soon as I could.

I switched a while back. It's okay. Right now I am more annoyed by the fact that fb says my account is temporarily unavailable. Grrrrr!

I'm on TL now, it didn't bug me.

Keep in mind, I've been on FB since before most of you guys were on FB. I joined right before VD 2006 - so my 6-year anniversary is in a few more weeks. I joined FB back when you still needed an .edu email address to join, and back when it was limited to just high school/college students. FB opened up to the general public by the end of '06. FB was so much more simple back then. I miss it a lot. And I'm STILL part of the school of thought that FB should revert to its roots. Not limiting itself to students -- I finished college in 2007, so I would be **** up a creek right now if FB limited itself to students, lol -- but... making itself not suck so damn much.

Surprisingly enough, I remember a time when FB DIDN'T have third-party apps AT ALL. What you signed up for was what you got. For instance, their photo albums back in '06, I believe, only allowed you to upload 50 pictures at a time. And when you made status updates, it looked like "[Your name here] is" so anything you posted had to be a present tense of what you were doing. For instance, "Allison is thinking this is dumb." -- there was a huge movement among the masses to drop the "is" part - that went away in 2007, I believe. And they didn't update in real-time like they do now. You had to, you know, refresh the page to get the latest updates. They didn't even have a chat - I think that came about by early 2009 at the latest. I am thankful, though, that they got rid of the thumbnail of applications one had installed on their FB - back in 2008, it showed up under your profile picture on your page. Something like this. A screencap I took back in February of 2008:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/photos-ak-ash1/v203/127/6/29413753/n29413753_33537619_3493.jpg

The more apps (both official FB/third-party apps) you were using, the more it would bog down your page if your friends viewed your page, the more likely you were to cause your friends' browsers to crash if they wanted to navigate to their page to leave a post. So - I'm very happy they got rid of it. (all the apps you see in that screenshot - all were official FB apps -- Education/Work, Pages, Gifts, Photos, Notes, Groups, Poke and Wall, in that order)

The timeline thing - blah. It totally changes FB from what I remember it. They've had a ton of major changes over the years - but they have always stuck to their basic layout idea.

I guess I'm just an old fogey FB veteran who is stubborn about changing. BECAUSE THEY'VE DONE IT TOO DAMN MANY TIMES. :p

I hate timeline. I switched 2 of my pages over and am just waiting for the ax to fall on the others...

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I like it the way it is, and saw no reason for a change. It doesn't really bother me but I do wish they'd just leave well enough alone. Why change something that is perfectly fine the way it is?

the timeline is designed to sell more ads by making users waste more time on the site because they aren't gaining any more new users and people are starting to spend less time on facebook. the new privacy agreement will let them serve more "directed ads" at you and by association all of your "friends"

the timeline is designed to sell more ads by making users waste more time on the site because they aren't gaining any more new users and people are starting to spend less time on facebook. the new privacy agreement will let them serve more "directed ads" at you and by association all of your "friends"

Ahhh, I see. Thanks for explaining that. I figured it was probably something like that. The next big thing is probably just around the corner ready to make Facebook irrelevant just as fb did with MySpace. I can understand how crucial it is in the internet world to keep things fresh, otherwise you are yesterday news. I just wish they'd have come out with something better. Timeline had people talking for a couple months, but the talk has already slowed down, and it seems like the hype is over. I wish they'd spend more time trying to fix minor kinks, and issues with the site. That would be time more well spent, and would keep more people interested in my opinion.

Ahhh, I see. Thanks for explaining that. I figured it was probably something like that. The next big thing is probably just around the corner ready to make Facebook irrelevant just as fb did with MySpace. I can understand how crucial it is in the internet world to keep things fresh, otherwise you are yesterday news. I just wish they'd have come out with something better. Timeline had people talking for a couple months, but the talk has already slowed down, and it seems like the hype is over. I wish they'd spend more time trying to fix minor kinks, and issues with the site. That would be time more well spent, and would keep more people interested in my opinion.

Thanks, guys, for the information.

I don't like it. Too cluttered!

Well, I've got 16 pages on facebook and only switched 2 of them to timeline. If I have to switch the other 14 then I'll NEVER be off the site!

I never joined facebook, mainly because I didn't have enough time to get into it & also because someone hacked my cousins account on there. So I figured they had some security issues. My husband's sister bugged him to join & he did, but he didn't really have time for it either & ended up deleting his account. That site seems to hook you in to spending way too much time on it. :lol:

I think that when all is said and done, Timeline is going to end up being yet another in a long line of Facebook changes that people vehemently protest at first, but soon end up embracing.

Personally, I like it!

I switched over to the TL because a family member of mine has done it and I thought it looked really neat and decided to do it too. I actually prefer this look over the old facebook profile design they had before. That's just my opinion anyway.

I LOVE Facebook Timeline. It is one of the few changes I've actually liked from Facebook.

I LOVE Facebook Timeline. It is one of the few changes I've actually liked from Facebook.

I agree. There has been a lot of changes in the past that I didn't like that Facebook made only because I felt they were unecessary but this is actually one change that I can say that I actually like and things looks really good on my profile page. :D

I switched mine a long time ago but I still have friends that use the old one still so I guess they haven't forced the change yet

I don't have it yet. I don't want it! :mad:

I haven't bothered to switch yet and nobody has forced me to. So much for it being mandatory.

But if you think this is bad, consider Google's privacy changes!

I haven't bothered to switch yet and nobody has forced me to. So much for it being mandatory.

That's good. I don't think Facebook should force anyone to make a timeline. That should be up to the user to decide.

I'm still waiting for that shoe to drop.

A friend of mine was forced to switch over the weekend

Not me yet, thank goodness.

Not looking foreword to it, but I suppose I'll get used to it like I've done with all of their other unwanted changes. It does make posting a status kind of awkward though b/c whenever I post on someone's wall that has the timeline thing I have a hard time trying to find exactly where I'm supposed to be posting!

Not looking foreword to it, but I suppose I'll get used to it like I've done with all of their other unwanted changes. It does make posting a status kind of awkward though b/c whenever I post on someone's wall that has the timeline thing I have a hard time trying to find exactly where I'm supposed to be posting!
That happens to me too. Also the photos are so big it takes forever for the page to load on my computer. I usually just post in the news feed section.

The change is scheduled for March 30 - this Friday.

Sad.

And on top of that, Blogger is "upgrading."

A lot of my friends don't like timeline I personally don't mind it, it's almost like myspace.

I stayed on MySpace after it stoped being cool because its profile pages looked like Web sites - different than Facebook. I left when it began copying Facebook.

keep in mind that anything you post on Facebook and its "Timeline" instantly becomes 100% the property of Facebook and they can and will do whatever they want with it according to their terms of service you signed when you joined (but they changed several times after you joined, but even though you probably have never seen or heard of any of these changes, you automatically agree to them every time you click on one of their pages)

a class action lawsuit in Illinois was recently filed against Facebook when they were using pictures, names and likenesses of minors in Facebook (and other "partner's") advertising, Facebook was then able to get the lawsuit moved to California (increasing the cost and difficulty for those filing) due to the new terms in the TOS.

enjoy...

http://www.topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/lawsuit-news

The change is scheduled for March 30 - this Friday.

I think that was only for Pages. All Pages should have transferred over to Timeline by now. I have a FB... It's now 4/11, and my FB page still has the old format. :)

I think that was only for Pages. All Pages should have transferred over to Timeline by now. I have a FB... It's now 4/11, and my FB page still has the old format. :)

Ditto here!

link (http://www.click2houston.com/lifestyle/technology/Should-11-year-olds-join-Facebook/-/1736680/14455778/-/1qhrb1/-/index.html)

Should 11-Year-Olds Join Facebook?
Report says Facebook could let kids use site with parental consent
Author: By John D. Sutter CNN
Posted: Jun 4 2012 9:44 AM CDT Updated: Jun 4 2012 4:01 PM CDT

(CNN) - Should young children be able to use Facebook? And if so, under what conditions? Those are the questions bloggers and Twitter users are batting around the Internet on Monday following a news report saying Facebook is looking into ways it could let kids under the age of 13 use the site with parental consent. Currently, Facebook bans children younger than 13.

Data from Microsoft Research and Consumer Reports, however, show that many kids use the site anyway, often with their parents' knowledge. A 2011 Consumer Reports survey found 7.5 million people younger than 13 use the site; nearly a third of 11-year-olds and more than half of 12-year-olds use Facebook with their parents' knowledge, according to a 1,007-person survey supported by Microsoft Research. Proponents of lifting Facebook's under-13 ban say letting young kids on Facebook with the help of adults would allow them to use the social network more safely.

"Whether we like it or not, millions of children are using Facebook, and since there doesn't seem to be a universally effective way to get them off the service, the best and safest strategy would be to provide younger children with a safe, secure and private experience that allows them to interact with verified friends and family members without having to lie about their age," Larry Magid writes at Forbes.com. Magid says Facebook for kids should not have ads and there need to be "extra privacy protections" that would involve parents helping their kids to use the social network safely.

Others say Facebook is trying to profit from the under-13 crowd. Common Sense Media, an advocacy group, compared Facebook to "Big Tobacco." "With the growing concerns and pressure around Facebook's business model, the company appears to be doing whatever it takes to identify new revenue streams and short-term corporate profits to impress spooked shareholders," the group's CEO, James Steyer, said in a statement.

"But here's the most important issue: There is absolutely no proof of any meaningful social or educational value of Facebook for children under 13. Indeed, there are very legitimate concerns about privacy as well as the impact on the social, emotional and cognitive development of children. What Facebook is proposing is similar to the strategies used by Big Tobacco in appealing to young people -- try to hook kids early, build your brand, and you have a customer for life. "What's next? Facebook for toddlers?" The Wall Street Journal on Monday published a front-page report saying Facebook is looking into ways to give younger children access to the social-networking site, which has more than 900 million users around the world and which made its lackluster stock market debut last month.

"Mechanisms being tested include connecting children's accounts to their parents' and controls that would allow parents to decide whom their kids can 'friend' and what applications they can use," the newspaper said, citing anonymous sources who are familiar with the dealings. "The under-13 features could enable Facebook and its partners to charge parents for games and other entertainment accessed by their children, the people said."

In a statement issued to CNN and other news outlets, Facebook did not deny looking into the issue but said it does not have anything formal to announce:
"Many recent reports have highlighted just how difficult it is to enforce age restrictions on the Internet, especially when parents want their children to access online content and services. We are in continuous dialogue with stakeholders, regulators and other policymakers about how best to help parents keep their kids safe in an evolving online environment."

Copyright 2012 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved.

Its June and some of my friends are still timeline free however these are only the ones that never use a computer to log in and only use the mobile apps

I currently have my fb account deactivated, but I was switched over to Timeline about a month ago. There are a few things I don't like about it, but overall I don't think it's that bad at all. There are also a few things that I prefer about it. Overall, I really don't even notice the difference anymore. I guess you just have to take the good with the bad, and hope that the good outweighs the bad. I'm cool with Timeline. It's all good.

I'm getting used to it. :)

I guess it's goodbye Facebook for me. I don't use it much anyway.

It hasn't happened to me yet.

Hasn't happened to me yet either. I still chat and keep in touch with my friends and family, the only complaint that I can give is that I wish that they would quit making so many changes to the site.

It's now mandatory. :( Ugh. I don't like how the timeline looks. I prefer how it looked before.

My question is what other site is Facebook competing with? I thought it was the top site?

Why continue to make changes if you are number 1:confused:

On 7/30, I FINALLY got hit with Timeline. Ew. Still not crazy about it - but I have to admit, I like some of their features. Like Life Events - that's pretty cool! And finally having a map showing the places I checked into. :lol:

My question is what other site is Facebook competing with? I thought it was the top site?

Why continue to make changes if you are number 1:confused:
its designed to make you waste more time on their site so you have to look at more ads...

its designed to make you waste more time on their site so you have to look at more ads...

I ignore the ads.

its designed to make you waste more time on their site so you have to look at more ads...

Well I;m on the site everyday anyway but always ignore the ads

On 7/30, I FINALLY got hit with Timeline. Ew. Still not crazy about it - but I have to admit, I like some of their features. Like Life Events - that's pretty cool! And finally having a map showing the places I checked into. :lol:

I love the check in map!

I don't have Timeline YET, but I know it's coming to my profile soon. I find it kind of confusing but I guess it'll be okay once I get used to it.

I haven't been on today. I'm afraid to check. I hate it. My computer takes forever to load and always stick on those pages.

Well I;m on the site everyday anyway but always ignore the ads
sure, but you are spending more time on the site now aren't you - and that's what they care about.

Just got stuck having the timeline yesterday :(

For those of you that really don't like Timeline.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dnedfaenfnkikficknkklbdedlecmpgc?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon

I guess I'm in the minority because I love the Timeline!!! I love that you can put a cover photo, or as I call it "the big-ass picture!!!":lol: And you also have your profile photo. It's not so bad now, once they ironed out the kinks. Before I would go check my timeline and I would scroll up to check on a post, and it would shoot me back up to the top of the page, so I couldn't even check. A little frustrating, but I don't get that anymore so I guess they fixed that.

It's now mandatory. :( Ugh. I don't like how the timeline looks. I prefer how it looked before.
please keep in mind that when they switched you over to the "Timeline" nonsense, they automatically reset all of your privacy settings and made all of your past posts public - essentially handing out the keys to anyone and everyone in the entire world to see everything you've ever put on there

you should regularly check your Facebook privacy settings, because they have a habit of doing this - and of course every time you click on ANY link on Facebook, you automatically agree to any new changes to their Terms of Service Agreement.

For those of you that really don't like Timeline.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dnedfaenfnkikficknkklbdedlecmpgc?utm_source=chrome-ntp-icon



I don't have Google Chrome because it's the slowest web browser in America

please keep in mind that when they switched you over to the "Timeline" nonsense, they automatically reset all of your privacy settings and made all of your past posts public - essentially handing out the keys to anyone and everyone in the entire world to see everything you've ever put on there

you should regularly check your Facebook privacy settings, because they have a habit of doing this - and of course every time you click on ANY link on Facebook, you automatically agree to any new changes to their Terms of Service Agreement.
I just switched over to timeline. They were going to do by next week anyway. I hate it. I pretty much changed all my settings so only I can see it until I figure how to operate everything. At least I hope I did. lol I'm not adding any cover photo. It would take forever to get to my page if I had one.

please keep in mind that when they switched you over to the "Timeline" nonsense, they automatically reset all of your privacy settings and made all of your past posts public - essentially handing out the keys to anyone and everyone in the entire world to see everything you've ever put on there

you should regularly check your Facebook privacy settings, because they have a habit of doing this - and of course every time you click on ANY link on Facebook, you automatically agree to any new changes to their Terms of Service Agreement.

Thanks for the information.

I just got my account switched to Timeline as well and thanks for the information. I'll definitely check my privacy settings again. But it's not as bad as I had anticipated and it was kind of fun setting it all up

Guys timeline is not that bad. It's not like it's something horrible. It's awesome, I love it cause I can have a cover photo and it looks neater, cleaner and more organized.

Also if I need too I can find a past status update

I don't have Google Chrome because it's the slowest web browser in America
IE is so much slower than Chrome. However I dont use either. I use RockMelt

A good friend of mine deactivated his Facebook account because he didn't like not having the option to keep it like it was. I am getting used to it but I do like the old format better. They will probably come up with something new again. I hate change but that's life!:)

A good friend of mine deactivated his Facebook account because he didn't like not having the option to keep it like it was. I am getting used to it but I do like the old format better. They will probably come up with something new again. I hate change but that's life!:)


You and me both. Why does the number 1 social media site have to keep changing?

link (http://www.click2houston.com/lifestyle/technology/At-101-Facebook-s-oldest-user-visits-campus/-/1736680/16398188/-/wkpcoaz/-/index.html)

At 101, Facebook's Oldest User Visits Campus
Woman gets personal tour of Facebook HQ
Author: By Doug Gross CNN
Posted: Aug 28 2012 3:07 PM CDT Updated: Aug 28 2012 5:45 PM CDT

(CNN) - She may be nearly four times as old as its founder, but Florence Detlor likes Facebook. At 101 years old, she's been named by the social network as the oldest of their 900 million registered users. And she also happens to live near Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., a fact that helped her get a personal tour and chance to meet some of the site's leaders.

On her own page, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg posted a photo Monday of herself, Detlor and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (who is 28, the same age Detlor was in 1939). "Honored to meet Florence Detlor, who at 101 years old is the oldest registered Facebook user," Sandberg wrote. "Thank you for visiting us Florence!" Detlor says on her profile page that she's a 1932 graduate of Occidental College. She joined the site almost exactly three years ago (Aug. 19, 2009). As of Tuesday morning, Detlor had 652 Facebook friends. "I like to think of new friends," she posted Monday, suggesting that some on that list may have appeared thanks to her 15 minutes of social-media fame.

She's a regular, but not overly prolific, poster on the site. But in three years, she's "liked" only two things: the Sony Dash, a pre-iPad tablet of sorts, and Dogwork.com, a site that specializes in animal videos. Detlor's status as Facebook's oldest active user has already inspired some light-hearted competition. "OK -- so now I'm feeling competitive and ready to get my grandma on Facebook. She's 103. ;-)" wrote a commenter on Sandberg's page.

Detlor may be on the extreme end, but she's part of a trend that's been evident for the past few years. The percentage of Internet users 50 and up who said they use social-networking sites spiked from 22 percent in 2009 to 42 percent the next year, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. Respondents 65 and older reported a 100 percent increase, while those between 50 and 64 jumped 88 percent. By comparison, the number of users from 18-29 who said they use networking sites rose a much more meager 13 percent.

Copyright 2012 by CNN NewSource. All rights reserved.