nathan jara

A few weekends ago, Facebook held its annual developers conference in San Francisco, California. The conference, called F8, is a gathering of web developers from companies and countries abroad who are looking to hear what Zuckerberg’s social media network has in store next. Two of the most powerful new features Facebook will be releasing are Timeline (launching this week) and additions to the Open Graph language used for Likes and FBConnect.

As a Facebook developer, you are granted access to the beta version of Timeline, which I’ve been able to try out over the last week or so. Timeline essentially adds a new area to your Facebook profile that enables you to easily view your entire Facebook history. And when I say entire, I mean, literally, everything. Every past post, picture, or comment that you’ve ever entered on Facebook since you originally joined is visible just by scrolling down the profile. Your Facebook history makes up your Facebook Timeline. The timeline even begins with your birthday and allows you to upload a baby photo, if you wish.

Now, if you’ve read my previous posts on Facebook, you’ll know that my faith in the social site has waned rather than grown for the most part. When I initially heard of Timeline, I had my doubts as usual and wasn’t too sure if I liked the idea of all my old posts being so visible. But, as I thought about it more and began to use the Timeline, my opinion’s changed. Honestly, it’s pretty cool. Scrolling back through “Facebook time” and seeing things that were happening throughout the past handful of years is fun. The way Facebook has organized the info is well done too, which makes it easy to use and view. (They actually hired Nicholas Felton, a professional designer of infographics to help with the Facebook Timeline changes.)

It’s no surprise that Facebook has big ideas for what Timeline will do, besides make the company a boat load of money. Facebook hopes for users to fill out their Timeline by going back and posting events and pictures in the past. Timeline gives you the ability to date posts. So, you can go back and change a picture that was posted about that crazy concert the following week to the Saturday night it actually happened. Or create a new Timeline wedding event and put up your wedding photos. Or upload pics of when you learned to ride a bike. Or bought a house. Or a car. Or, yes, even when you got the chicken pox. Well, maybe you don’t want pictures of that, but you could if you want. Yeah, crazy, I know. Facebook has given the world the ability to create a personalized visual timeline of your life.

The other new feature, which may have a bigger impact, at lease for businesses who use social media, is the Open Graph update. Users will now not just be able to say that they “Like this website,” but be able to say that he or she is “Wearing AE Jeans,” or “Bought a new Ford Mustang.” With the addition of custom action verbs, Facebook is giving developers and sites the ability to create applications to very specifically describe a person’s activity online.

I’m sure marketing execs everywhere are dancing in their cubicles. The possibilities seem almost endless. As do the privacy concerns. I don’t “Like” too much now, especially on websites other than Facebook. And I’d be cautious as to what you’re “wearing,” “buying,” or “listening” to in the future as the new applications begin popping up all over the place.

The impacts of Facebook’s new changes have the potential to be massive from many perspectives. This All Things Digital article provides one perspective that describes how the Open Graph updates are in effect allowing Facebook to take in very dynamic data from the entire internet … and own it.

I’m more excited for the Timeline changes, but it will be interesting to see over the next few months how Open Graph allows online activity to get even more personal. Geez, we thought people were on Facebook all the time already.

If you haven’t heard the latest Buzz, Google recently released its Facebook killer, Google+. The Google Plus Project is the technology giant’s all encompassing foray into the dangerous world of social networking. If you were lucky enough to get an invite to the initial beta testing period, you’ve already monkeyed around with Circles, Sparks, and Hangouts. While I haven’t jumped into all the new fancy pants features, I have to say I’m liking, no Facebook pun intended, the Circles feature most. Circles basically allow you to group your Google+ friends into different categories of your choosing. You can place all your closest chums in your Friends circles while keeping work buddies in a Coworkers circle. The best part about this feature is that when sharing a post, comment or message, you can select the particular person or persons with whom you want to share that post with and not always everyone under the Facebook sun. I think the customization and personal choice of who gets to see what with Circles is an awesome move by Google. As one who has complained about Facebook’s approach in the past, it’s good to see a company taking the user’s choice into account from the get-go.

I am surprised, however, that there hasn’t been more hullabaloo about this categorization aspect of Circles. I thought for sure we’d be hearing people complaining that this “putting people into circles” business (insert whiny voice here) is unfair and will hurt people’s feelings because everyone should be equal. I’m glad there hasn’t been such comments, or at least I haven’t seen any, because I think this feature is needed. When it comes to social groups, we all have people we’re closer to and not so close to. People we want to share more personal things with and those that we just want to say “hey!” to every now and then. I think Google+’s Circles reflects more realistically our offline social lives.

If you agree, ask around and demand an invite from a pal. It’ll be interesting to see how Google+ progresses and grows over the next few months and if any Facebookers will jump ship for the new web hotness or just double up their social worlds. I doubt the Madelaine Zammits of the web will be coming aboard, but I’ve definitely tested the waters and am feeling much more relaxed. Heck, even the Zuck-man himself took a dip. +1 Google, +1.

Every now and then you realize once again just how crazy big Facebook has become. I came across this video tonight featuring Madelaine Zammit, a high-school student from Australia, who sings about on-going complaints from the Facebook world. When it’s not inspiring debates or movies, Facebook inspires creative song writing, I suppose. I can’t be too surprised or critical though, it has inspired several of my own posts :P

Since my previous post on the subject, the Facebook wars go on. Zuckerburg and company have updated the Privacy Settings area once again. This time however, I can say that I’m feeling a bit better about the situation. The Facebook team has definitely simplified things. And giving users the option to select predefined settings is nice. Although, there still is buzz and chatter that the social network still hasn’t fixed anything. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens and who makes the next move.

On a more exciting note, Apple announced the iPhone 4 today. I have to say, it looks really sweet. Sleek and thin design, 5MP camera with flash, front-facing camera, high-res display…it is a beautiful device. If only I was eligible to upgrade now…darn. I do have the new OS to look forward to later this month. Multitasking…mmmm.

For a little more on the whole Facebook privacy issue, just came across this nifty chart created by Matt McKeon. He has provided and interesting look at how the privacy of information has changed over the past 5 years. The data speaks for itself.