Facebook Timeline • Hacker News Board

Re: Facebook Timeline

#171

Post by atdt » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 9:14 AM UTC

mkjones wrote: post #169

brown9-2 wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate to be a tin foil hat on this, but it really seems like a perfect way to get people to turn over even more personal/private information (especially the kinds they don't usually post in a day-to-day status update, like date of graduation, age, schools, etc) for Facebook to sell to advertisers.

Facebook doesn't sell anyone's data to advertisers - we let advertisers target ads based on certain criteria. I'm curious what makes you think we sell people's data? (I'm an engineer at Facebook.)

Which criteria?

Re: Facebook Timeline

#172

Post by shuaib » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 9:15 AM UTC

For some of us, best thing about facebook will always remain the same: not to have a facebook profile at all.

What happened to catching an old buddy after ages, in real life, and getting to hear each others story over a cup of coffee or dinner table. I would always prefer that to getting to know every other detail about my friends living far away, throwing every little detail of their life at me, every 10 minutes.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#173

Post by nickpp » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 9:21 AM UTC

Chunkinator wrote: post #75

For extra points they should have ended the timeline with Andy Sparks in a coffin.

My thoughts exactly. I found the whole "timeline" quite trite and deeply depressing.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#174

Post by marcustaylor » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 10:13 AM UTC

I'm not a big fan - I really don't like the idea that if I just connected with someone they can see updates I posted from 2007...

Re: Facebook Timeline

#175

Post by lwhi » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 10:42 AM UTC

faizanaziz wrote: post #55

Google - "Tell me more about you" Facebook - "Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are"

Facebook log a lot of behavioural data as well - so in a sense they are also asking 'tell me more about you'.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#176

Post by lwhi » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 10:46 AM UTC

Call me cynical, but I can't help feel that this has been produced to convince people to provide Facebook with even greater access to their lives and what they do.

It provides a degree of justification for harvesting personal data - but perhaps negates the fact that this data is useful to Facebook as well. Smoke and mirrors ...

Re: Facebook Timeline

#177

Post by dimitar » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 11:46 AM UTC

juiceandjuice wrote: post #76

mrshoe wrote: post #29

Does anyone here remember when Facebook had this feature back in 2004/2005? It was a little simpler, but exactly the same idea. They killed it a long time ago, but I guess they just decided to bring it back. The dude in the video has sure aged and accomplished an impressive amount in Facebook's 7 year history.

Facebook used to be more of a social network for finding people you don't know, and now it's a social network for the people you know. I really miss searching through profiles. I made a lot of friends randomly that way at my school. I'd click on a band name, a movie, a person or anything, find all the people that liked that band, find out a person was really awesome, hang out with them, etc... Then you could find peo…

Badoo and dating site are for finding people you don't know :-)

Re: Facebook Timeline

#178

Post by marvinkennis » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 11:56 AM UTC

atdt wrote: post #171

mkjones wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook doesn't sell anyone's data to advertisers - we let advertisers target ads based on certain criteria. I'm curious what makes you think we sell people's data? (I'm an engineer at Facebook.)

Which criteria?

Criteria like age, location, education, interests etc. You can see the entire list when creating a Facebook ad: http://www.facebook.com/ads/create/. But the advertisers don't get to see what belongs to who, unless someone clicks on an ad, buys something and they backtrace all of that. They only target it.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#179

Post by anorwell » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 11:56 AM UTC

orijing wrote: post #168

orijing wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should fit in 980 pixels or so, without the chat bar

Why the downvotes? I am an engineer at Facebook who worked on parts of Timeline. That was posted from my phone, but I just tried it and it definitely fits under 1000 pixels if you close the chat sidebar.

The top-level post is referring to the timeline intro page (http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline), not timelines themselves.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#180

Post by bengillies » Fri, Sep 23, 2011, 12:07 PM UTC

spokengent wrote: post #35

tommi wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point and it's a good one but humor me. What is there to explain? Why doesn't your wife let you be the person you are?

Where's the line? Rating how good your past girlfriends were in bed? Describing how you had the best valentines day with a previous girlfriend, and not with your current wife? People like to believe they're special. Talking too much about ex-gf/bf's is a recipe for disaster. They can't handle the truth! Do you tell your wife her ass looks big as well? ;)

> Where's the line?

Apparently, it's wherever Facebook decides it is.