finally (it's an epic one...)

So, Facebook Timeline has finally arrived! Given that making the most of social media is part of my job description, I now have the perfect excuse to be truly nosy and geek-ish about the inner workings of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and the like.

After what seemed an interminable wait, I’ve finally been able to test out Timeline for myself. In my opinion, it was entirely worth the wait. It is by far the best update we’ve had from Facebook yet, and I stand by my previous opinions to say that I think they’ve finally cracked it -- Facebook has changed forever and, I think, changed for the better.

Users’ profiles are now centred around a vertical line running the length of their browser page, with the individual posts, photos and status updates appearing in boxes either side of the line. Boxes containing content about significant events (e.g. graduation from university, marriage, new job) are automatically detected by Facebook and made larger -- taking up the entire width of the page -- to ‘feature’, or highlight, the event. Other, undetected events can also be enlarged by clicking the star icon in the corner of each box. Equally, events can be un-featured by clicking the star icon again.

The new Timeline profiles are much more app-driven, giving people real-time updates about what their friends are listening to, watching, reading, cooking. Mark Zuckerberg's aim is for Facebook to become a natural extension to real-life relationships, with users taking advantage of Facebook’s new capabilities and using it as a primary means of sharing life with friends, not just ‘Friends’.

At the top of the timeline, above your profile picture, there is space for a ‘cover picture’ -- a large, widescreen image of your choosing. Currently, mine is the teacup from my blog header above, but it can be anything. I’ve seen some interesting and imaginative examples online, which I have scattered through this post.

To the right of the timeline is a list of years, starting at your year of birth and ending with the current year, allowing users to click to a particular year (and even a specific month) to view the content added at that time. Basically this all means is that the events, photos and statuses from years gone by that have previously been confined to the depths of Facebook’s memory, virtually irretrievable, are now very easily accessed and viewed.

It’s this feature of Timeline that people seem to have the most issue with. Many users seem mortified at the prospect of early posts now resurfacing, often years later, to be inspected by their Facebook friends. Now, to me, this just prompts the question: if their previous content is so private -- why post it in the first place?!

I understand that people that are now adults, with jobs and responsibilities, will be reluctant to let any posy, emo pictures and such emerge from the vaults to be mocked by their Facebook 'Friends' but, again, it all comes down to personal responsibility. For me, I like to keep Facebook for actual friends and family, not colleagues (LinkedIn) and vague acquaintances (vague recesses of memory). In fact, the news that Timeline was slowly being rolled out in the past few weeks has caused me to review my Friends list (as I do fairly frequently anyway) and delete people that I haven’t spoken to online for ages -- if ever. My rule of thumb? If you haven’t seen or spoken to someone in over a year, or ever, they’re off the list.

After all, deleting someone from Facebook doesn’t mean that you then can’t speak to them in real life! Or, indeed, that you can’t re-add them at some point in the future (unless, of course, they delete you in a moment of outrage at your un-friending, but that in itself tells a story...). There always seems to be a strange finality to deleting someone from Facebook, as though you are rejecting them as a person and as a part of your life. Nonsense! Facebook needs to remain what it was always intended to be -- a means of communication with people that we already communicate with, not the only means! Anyway, back to Timeline...

In general, the interface is much more user-friendly and (in my opinion) beautifully designed. The timelines are image-driven, clean, uncluttered, and generally much more engaging. Despite what detractors say -- that Timeline is a stalker’s paradise, with endless streams of personal information ripe for the picking -- I actually think that Timeline will force Facebook users to think much more carefully about the information that they share online. Or so it should.

People become enraged and irate about Facebook’s now fairly regular updates and the apparently endless scope for identity theft, but they leave almost no room for people’s common sense. Yes, of course it would be easy for unsavoury types to find out more about you, your history and your habits if you broadcast your life for all the world to see -- but Facebook offers a plethora of privacy options that can mean you don’t even have to appear in name searches if you don’t want to!

Having said that, I imagine that there will be a fair few people modifying their timelines for the benefit of people that they have added since the early days of their Facebook life, who don’t particularly want the photographic evidence of ill-advised nights out displayed on their timeline resplendent in their sordid glory. Facebook allows you to either hide (which means only you can see them) or delete posts altogether, by clicking the pencil icon in each box.

Perhaps, though, the most interesting feature of all, is the ability to add events onto your timeline. This can be an event from any point of your life. Taken to its extreme, this means that users could (if they had the time and inclination) chronicle literally every significant (or perhaps not so significant) event of their life, all on their timeline.

It’s this feature that got Mark Zuckerberg choked up at the f8 conference this year, at Timeline’s grand unveiling. The idea that Timeline might be the facilitator of the recording of people’s life history, allowing them to look back with ease at every event of their existence -- having history just a mouse click away, accessible forever. His vision for Facebook is: ‘We don't want you to spend more time on Facebook; we want the time you spend on Facebook to be so valuable you come back every day'.

Has the new Timeline layout added value to Facebook? I think so. Whether Facebook will ever reach the dizzying heights of near-real-life sharing remains to be seen. Either way -- hats off to you, Facebook. Job well done.