Tuesday, October 11, 2011

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Timeline

I'm going to take a break from my usual mommy talk to actually go tech for a bit.  Believe it or not, I am a bit of a techie.  I don't need the latest and greatest, but I do like playing with things to figure out how they work... (That could be taken in so many ways)  Back in high school, I taught myself HTML 4.0 and I have a tendency to poke through programs and find all their secrets.  Big Guy also has me figure out how things work for him because he's turning into an old fogey. 

So, when Facebook changed AGAIN, I was annoyed, like everyone else, but not too put out.  It would take a day or so, but I would get used to it.  However, when they announced the advent of  Facebook Timeline, I was definitely intrigued.  When I discovered that you could actually implement the timeline before it went live, I knew I had to try it. 

I hunted down the instructions and discovered something amazing. 
My Cover Pic and Profile Pic


I love it.  Seriously.  I absolutely LOVE the new Facebook Timeline.  I know people are going to totally flip out when it's officially implemented because it IS a departure from the norm.  But, and here's the thing, the timeline makes your profile more personal by giving you more control. 

You don't just have a profile pic anymore.  You also have a cover picture to help lend a slightly more personal or creative touch to your page.  And the timeline doesn't just go back to when you JOINED Facebook, it goes back to other major events as well...  Like the births of children and siblings.  You can still choose what people see, and you can also feature certain stories on your timeline. 

What Zuckerberg and his team have managed to do with the timeline (impressively enough) is actually make Facebook feel both streamlined AND more informative while avoiding a generic blocky page.  It's smooth, slick, impressive...  How did this happen? 
  

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