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Facebook Timeline

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Re: Facebook Timeline

#111
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.

I know you were being a bit sarcastic with the history comment, but you can add things to the timeline. So theoretically you could go back add pictures from way before facebook's launch.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#112

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…

From my understanding, the timeline will feature your most recent activity and then summarize the rest of it. Therefore you only really drill down on the people you're interested in learning more about anyway. If it's just a random coworker, you'll focus on the above-the-fold recent activity.

It really makes sense to me... When you get down to the "show more" link at the end of a friend's profile what you really want is a summary of the important stuff beyond that. It actually reminds me of when you got the bottom of your feed on friendfeed and were presented with a "best of day" link.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#113
I wonder how many businesses and hopes facebook killed today. Many of those features are things that you could imagine someone might offer as an app.

Soon they will begin to bet against their own market.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#114
post #80

I can't help but think of bitrot. You spend an afternoon "scrapbooking" in real life, and you get something that your grand-grandsons might, one day, inherit and read in awe. You spend an afternoon scrapbooking on FB, and in ten years FB goes bust or whatever (Geocities, anyone?), and you've got nothing. I guess the real test will be my wife -- she loves scrapbooking. (this, and the first time I went through the pres…

Sure many people will spend time curating their timeline, but I think that for most people an algorithm will just select the best stuff.

Nobody is stopping people from continuing to scrapbook, but let's face it, not many people do that anyway (I know that I don't). Now, with 0 additional effort on the user's part, he or she will have a digital scrapbook. I think that's pretty cool.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#115
This was the first time in awhile I got that "evil empire" vibe from something. Not to say that what Facebook is doing is inherently evil, but something about cataloging life into such a precise order seems...strange. From a technical standpoint, however, what Facebook has achieved is quite impressive. The design is gorgeous as is the interaction (and that's speaking without having actually used it). This definitely marks an exciting and encouraging time to be in this industry, but I hope it doesn't mean that we'll be living life via the timeline.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#116
post #23

Is this similar to http://path.com ?

It's what Path is trying to capture, but they're such a new service that they don't have the problem of displaying multiple year's worth of data (in their case photos). If people keep using the service, I'm sure they will eventually have to come up with a better way to find the most interesting moments.

Re: Facebook Timeline

#117
post #80

I can't help but think of bitrot. You spend an afternoon "scrapbooking" in real life, and you get something that your grand-grandsons might, one day, inherit and read in awe. You spend an afternoon scrapbooking on FB, and in ten years FB goes bust or whatever (Geocities, anyone?), and you've got nothing. I guess the real test will be my wife -- she loves scrapbooking. (this, and the first time I went through the pres…

We're building a competitor app that solves this problem simply - we send you a book. Check us out - http://myscribr.com

Re: Facebook Timeline

#118
post #49
post #36

This in short is a great piece of design. Especially coming out of facebook this is amazing (well they now have one of the most talented designers so not that surprising). However, as a business this is killer and shrewd. Everyone would want to save a log of their life. More app permissions to add to timeline > more auto posts in ticker > more connection for Facebook. Well played! Disclosure: I am working on somethin…

How cool is this going to be for kids who grew up with Facebook and their kids and their kids' kids? I would love to have had insight to this level of detail for my ancestors.

Do you really believe that facebook will be around for 4 consecutive generations while retaining the data that was entered there?

Re: Facebook Timeline

#119

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…

Because people love revisiting the past.
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