All New Facebook Timeline Magazine Replaces Old Facebook Profile

Love it or hate it all websites need to freshen up on a regular basis to stay relevant, Facebook seems to do this more often than most as the complaints on my wall will verify. But if you are going to stay at the top staying relevant is a priority and Facebook have really done it this time, bringing in one of the biggest shifts in user history – the all new Facebook Timeline which is replacing your old Facebook Profile.

Yes, this is a huge change and I am here to take you through the changes coming on October 3rd in preparation for this major shift in your perception of your Facebook Profile, now called your Facebook Timeline.

“Timeline is the story of your life,” said Mark Zuckerberg “All your stories, all your apps, express who you are.”

“Timeline is a new kind of profile, one that lets people tell their story in a visually-rich and artistic fashion. In addition to aesthetics, Timeline is essentially a social home page for all that moves you, from media to experiences to people. The biggest difference you’ll notice is presentation. Starting with the substantial image that you choose to depict your persona, the new format essentially turns your profile into a Flipboard-esque (magazine) pictorial rich with updates, content, and connections…all designed to tell your story, your way. Don’t be confused by the name however, Timeline is much more than that, it’s essentially a storyboard for your digital and real life as told by what you share and what others share with you.” says Brian Solis,digital media magnus.

Personally I see the new Timeline as a magazine of your life going all the way back to your birth, and it does this if you have dated anything on FB it will now be there under that date in the Timeline of your life. Facebook are now using boxes or more accurately a magazine style layout for the stories of your life, boxes that can be favourited, shifted, commented on and deleted as you see fit.

One very important thing I would like to point out to you all is this, along with the stories of your life Facebook are introducing “Social Reader” apps, which will display what you’re reading online to your Facebook friends. If you opt into any of these apps you will need to be aware that Facebook will be able to trace your activity, much like Google can across the web and report back via your Timeline on what you are reading and what your online habits are. Do not be mistaken this information is not just for your visual sharing pleasure, it is very much about Facebook becoming a social search engine to rival Google, and you can be sure they will be using this information to increase their search capabilities and to fuel their ad engines along with other applications for all this prime search data!

Now before you get all upset about the loss of your Facebook privacy, you can opt out of these tracking apps at any time. That being said, as I say any time online privacy is mentioned to me, there is none and never really has been, online privacy has and continues to be a myth, so please, please think about this fact before you write or display anything you wouldn’t want read my your grandchildren or in a public court case. Always think about the legacy you are leaving of your time here on earth.

Now let’s take a good look at the new Facebook Timeline Magazine, as I am calling it, oh and just remember this is still in Beta and I am giving you an inside peek at what might be the end result …or not, lol:

As you can see the first thing you see as you take a look at the all new Timeline is what  is being called your “Cover” obviously in reference to a Magazine cover, I have already changed mine again and will continue to do so just to provide a fresh ‘cover’ regularly. Gone is the 5 image banner that was so handy to use for your marketing and indeed so has the 180×500 profile picture. The new dimensions for your cover and profile image are: Cover – 850 x 310px and Profile Image – 125 x 125px just for future reference so you can be ready.

I have created a couple of video’s for you that will take you through my explorations of the new Timeline I hope you find them instructional and are ready for your new Timeline when it goes live on October 3rd and rolls out across the world over the next few days after this date.

Video Tour of the New Facebook Timeline – this one is a little hard to hear for some reason my sound was playing up.

Facebook Timeline History Archive – this one shows how you can go back through your history using the new Timeline

more great posts around the web on the new Timeline:

Mashable Facebook Changes Roundup

Mashable Facebook Privacy Issues

Brian Solis The New Facebook Timeline for Personal Discovery this is a link to the rest of the article I quoted above.

The BIG question for me is; How will this effect business profiles? As things stand if Facebook follows suit with past changes and our business pages clone our personal profiles our pages will be immensely affected; with no navigation all our custom tabs will become irrelevant just for a start, so I will be waiting with baited breath for the first hints of what is to come.

There will be a lot of people out of work and a lot of apps that will not work if Facebook Pages go the way of Facebook Personal Profiles, think about it, custom tabs designers and apps will be irrelevant, replaced by one big ‘cover’. Personally I cannot believe that Mark Zuckerberg and team would be quite that near sighted…

Let me know what you think of these changes in a comment below, do you like them, hate them, what are you worried about, where do you think this is all going to lead?

and …imagine the infinite possibilities!