There are big changes on the horizon at Facebook. Recently at f8 (the Facebook developers conference), CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced and showed off some of the big changes that the social networking giant has in store for us. (Watch the keynote address here)
Privacy Settings
Of paramount concern for quite a few Facebook users is privacy. Recent changes (once again) to the privacy policy have begun rolling out. If you haven’t checked out your profile recently, you may very well be greeted with the following screens. They essentially walk you through your new abilities to control specific privacy settings.
You now have some more control over the following:
These are all very cool changes that while no one has ever come out and said it, are clearly in direct response to some of the things that Google + got right.
Facebook Timeline
Oh… you wanted to see the new profile that you’ve been hearing about? Well here it is.
As you can see, the layout of your profile page is VERY different than it has been in versions past. The concept of a profile picture is still here, but now you can also add what Facebook refers to as “cover” (the steak pictured above). This is yet another opportunity to share what you’re doing, who you’re with, your mood, etc. HOW TO: Make the Most of the New Facebook Timeline Cover Photo. The profile picture (in this example the pic of Eric with sunglasses on) is still the one that follows you around the site as you comment, like and share items.
In addition to the new cover picture you can see there are quite a few other changes here. In the upper right hand corner you get a “quick view” of what people are doing. You can roll over each item and instantly interact with that particular story.
The timeline itself (to the right of the cover photo) will allow you to quickly go back through time. Facebook will show fewer and fewer items as you go back in time, but it will call out important items in your life (births, weddings, new jobs, etc.) As always, more info is just a click away as you can expand to look at old status updates, photos and activity.
Speaking of activity, the new profile gives you an at-a-glance view of where you’ve been.
Note that I’m a big user of location based programs whether it be the Facebook Places check in feature or mobile apps such as Foursquare. By default Facebook is NOT tracking where you are. This map is built when you check in, tag a photo or post with a location. This particular mapping feature only includes Facebook items (IE, it doesn’t include Foursquare check ins).
There’s quite few other changes that I won’t go into detail here. Suffice to say just when you thought you had a handle on your Facebook profile, Mark Zuckerberg and crew have gone and changed it up once again. This new profile will start to be rolled out in the next couple of weeks.
Want to enable to the new Timeline Profile now? Click here and follow the steps.
Let us know what you think!