Facebook-timeline
Facebook timeline goes public in New Zealand. We get first impressions from DOM’s man in Aotearoa and self-professed Facebook cynic.
Facebook has begun the roll-out of its new Timeline feature. Developers have had access to an early test version, but today it goes live for the public. But only in New Zealand. So we've got DOM's 'man down under', John, to give us his first impressions.
Kia ora from the land of the long white cloud. Yes, today us lucky kiwis got our hands on the new Facebook timeline before most of you were even out of bed! It's ironic that New Zealand, which generally lags a decade behind in technology, is quite often used as a testbed for up-coming gadgets and gizmos. We're small (about 4.5 million), English-speaking (arguably) and are a nation of inventors and tinkerers, not afraid to 'give things a go'.
The magazine-style layout
The magazine-style layout is far less cluttered, less chaotic and haphazard than the 'traditional' Facebook look. It doesn't look like 'waffle vommit' as I've been known to call the old style random bombardment of crud.
Right up top are 2 of my favourite new features. The cover photo instantly makes the page more personalised, engaging and instantly more attractive (even if it's got my ugly mug in it). To the right a quick way to navigate down to a particular date range. Notice I can go right from the day I was born and fill my timeline in the 'pre-Facebook' days. That opens up decades worth of crud for me to bore people with. Fantastic!
The timeline itself
I actually enjoyed scrolling down the page and seeing hundreds of things I'd ignored previously whooshing by. There are comments, photos and actions… a history of every interaction between me and my friends and everything I've liked.
Sure that may have been there before. But now it's so accessible. It's all neatly grouped and summarised, ready to toggle into more detail if I want to. And I found myself wanting to (more about why that's a big deal at the end).
To add something to my timeline I just click in the appropriate place on the line and a menu pops up with what kind of content I'd like to add. Simple.
If I choose 'life events' then I get to choose from all kinds of events from Work & Education to Travel & Experiences. Each different type (and there are plenty) has it's own template specifically suited to that event. For example, if I chose 'new job' I can fill in the company name and position. If it was travel it'd be places visited and some photos.
I can also remove things (including what Facebook has automatically populated my timeline with) or click 'feature' and they'll expand out to the full width of the page for added 'pow'. Cool.
My thoughts… or why the mountain Google+ has to climb just got higher
Now I would just like to say at this point that I'm not a big Facebook fanatic, I barely use it if I'm honest (in NZ social media is what we call graffiti in the urinals). It's because I'm in my mid-thirties and a businessman. I've never seen Facebook as more than something to keep illiterate teens quiet.
I know, I know… Facebook is a great platform for business and there are huge opportunities to reach and engage massive audiences. But I've never felt that Facebook is anything other than that, it's not something I wanted to use.
But I have to say that introducing the timeline has, for the first time, made me look at Facebook and think "I could actually use this". That's something I wasn't expecting. And that makes me think Google+ is going to have a tougher time differentiating itself as the 'non-teen' (my personal impression of what they're aiming at) social media platform.