Facebook announced today that they will begin shoving the timeline down users’ throats. It’s being pushed to everyone over the next few weeks, and once you get it you have a week to make it presentable.
From the Facebook blog:
Last year we introduced timeline, a new kind of profile that lets you highlight the photos, posts and life events that help you tell your story. Over the next few weeks, everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you’ll have 7 days to preview what’s there now. This gives you a chance to add or hide whatever you want before anyone else see’s it.
You can learn more about these new features by taking the quick tour available at the top of your timeline. If you want to get timeline now, go to the Introducing Timeline page and click “Get Timeline.” Or you can wait until you see an announcement at the top of your home page.
This came as an update to a previous blog post. On December 15th, 2011, Facebook announced that Timeline was available to everyone and would become mandatory soon. Now is that time.
Personally, I kind of like the new Facebook Timeline. I think it’s a much-needed update to the tired old profile design that users have seen for a while now. But not everyone shares my opinion, and plenty of users have been vocal in their displeasure. When Timeline went live for all users (by choice), scam groups popped up on Facebook offering to deactivate the Timeline. Thousands of users liked the pages, only to find that they had just opened their profile up to malicious, spammy apps.
Plus, privacy groups have made it clear that they think the Timeline feature is a violation of Facebook’s privacy policy as determined by a recent FTC settlement.
Nevertheless, it’s coming. And once it hits your profile, you have a week to hide all those “freshman 15” photos from 2005 and promote all of those witty statuses you made last year.
What do you think about the Facebook Timeline? Let us know in the comments.
