Early users of Facebook Timeline are offering mixed reviews, as we see with everything new that comes along. I’m seeing remarks like, “It’s only for stalkers,” or “I love the new look.”
I think I fall into the second category. You aren’t providing any information that wasn’t already there. If you’ve been paying attention to your privacy settings all along, there are no surprises about what is shown in the timeline. Only people who were originally able to see something you posted will be able to see it on your timeline.
There may be an invitation right now to create check out the new timeline feature, or a green button on the lower right of the page that lets you go to the timeline. Once you construct and publish your timeline, you can’t go back. But that hardly matters, because everyone’s information is going to be in a timeline by next week.
Once you are in your profile’s timeline mode, you add a “cover” image. This requires a big image. I picked a photo of some old derelict cars I saw in a ghost town in the mountains of Western New Mexico. Old. Derelict. Okay, I find it funny.
I like the new layout–a lot. It’s much more attractive than the previous profiles were. One of the features is a timeline which you can click to move around in your information.
The timeline also lets you edit your information. You can remove things by finding them in your timeline. (Or use the Activity Log to quickly find and remove stuff you regret.) You can add things from before Facebook even existed. You can feature items if you want to really make them stand out.
You have options about what the timeline shows.
When your friends take some action–such as uploading a photo, it’s going to roll by in a sort of news ticker.
Your status updates are turned into “Stories” which can be highlighted to tell a complete tale of some event in your life. They are displayed in a two column layout with a timeline slider in the gutter between the columns.
If you are someone who was annoyed by seeing what people were listening to on Spotify, you’re now going to see a lot more like that with the new social apps. You can hook Facebook up to all kinds of apps–from a GPS view of your morning run to a list of what you’ve watched on Netflix to a record of what you read at The New York Times.
For more information about getting your Timeline in the condition you want it, see the Facebook Timeline Help page or the About Timeline page.