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Facebook Timeline

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Re: Facebook Timeline

#181

I'm amazed I'm the only one it seems that things this is pretty lame and not going to be that popular. People _already know_ your life story, that's usually why their your (at least close) friends. Do you really want to see your workmates "life story"? For those that think this is genuinely going to be a good and popular thing, could you explain why? You probably all know much better than me, so I am interested to he…

Lol, reminds me of a season 9 episode of king of the hill. Not sure which one anymore. After half way I think.

One of Hank Hill's employees shows up on his doorstep demanding he hang out, but Hank refuses to mix work and personal relationships.

Just thought I'd share :P

Re: Facebook Timeline

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is more geared towards the narcissist in all of us. You read your own timeline, not your workmates'.

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.

Not a chance they would sell data, that would be a one-off! You want to "rent" access to the data clusters to advertisers without providing them ways to bypass you in the future!

Re: Facebook Timeline

#183

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.)

Perhaps I am generalizing too much - what I truly meant was this feature enables Facebook to have even more fine-grained criteria on which to sell ads.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#184
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.

All the companies are robbing each other and sticking a title on it calling features new an revolutionary this is basically Apple's time machine/Auto Save feature on Lion and twitter integration but nicely done in one package actually make me really not want to use it I like the modular approach to social networking and apply this model to many thing in my life

Re: Facebook Timeline

#185
post #167

I've heard a lot of people on HN call Facebook a toy, which at some point was probably a fair criticism. This is the first thing I've seen from Facebook in a long time that truly feels like important and worthwhile work.

"truly feels like important and worthwhile work" Would you please care explaining why?

I think timeline addresses some common needs and desires- personal reflection, recording your experiences, bonding over shared experiences. The profile and news feed have always seemed tailored to a certain type of content- what's happened recently. But it never really seemed important and the profile doesn't help you know someone. It feels like timeline lowers the virtual barrier between participants in online communication and lets them express themselves in a meaningful way. It feels like a departure from frivolity.

Of course, I have only seen the pitch at f8 but I haven't used the product yet so right now I think exactly what Facebook wants me to think :)

Re: Facebook Timeline

#186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The examples that they are showing look awesome. I wonder if they will surface ex-girlfriends as "important" parts of your timeline.

Good question. I'd imagine that's part of the logic behind giving you "complete control" :) I'm also interested to see how they associate old photos and other pre-Facebook content with dates.

It's done by date posted, but you can edit those dates. I am going to look into whether the API can change timeline dates programmatically, since OurDoings is perfect for backfilling a timeline semi-automatically with EXIF data.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I experienced this when I first tried out online dating. One of my first dates felt more like our 3rd or 4th so it really was hard to break the ice.

I took this to mean that before you met in real life, you researched the other person so intently you felt like you'd spent 2-3 evenings together (talking) already? Is that what you meant? I dunno, in my experience OKCupid profiles (the best available online dating site the last time I was single) were just a thin veneer of bullshit designed to sell only the best qualities. Nothing wrong with that per se but I never…

No research. We just exchanged a few emails before we met.
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