Trying the new Facebook Timeline today. I have to say that as much as I dreaded it, I rather like it. But it is also a time to reflect–especially to reflect about what you want others to know about you and about posts you may have made years ago.  I’ll talk more about that in a bit…

In reading others’ blogs and comments, it appears that some don’t like the layout, but if you think of it in terms of a timeline as it is intended, it makes sense. The timeline itself runs down the middle of the page, with events, status updates, etc. positioned throughout. Right now, Facebook is letting you initiate it and then play with it for 7 days before publishing. Or, if you are ready you can “Publish Now.” Warning! You can’t go back to the regular layout. Here’s a screen shot to give you an idea of what mine looks like.

You can get Timeline by logging into Facebook and searching for “Introducing Timeline.”  Then choose “Get Timeline.” Facebook provides a Tour, which you can replay by pressing the “Restart Tour” button that shows you what the elements of the page are and what you can do with it. Essentially, the timeline goes backwards from present day to your birthday, if you are so inclined.
Three pods appeared fixed at the top: A quick update pod, your “Friends” pod and “Recent Activity” pod. I did wonder initially why there appeared to be two areas for friends. One appears in the timeline and shows all your friends (rotating their images and providing a link, like before to see all of them).  The o ther appears in your basic information area.  This smaller widget seems to show (from the viewpoint of someone else) any friends you have in common, as a number is displayed.  Below these, the pods are directly tied to the timeline and you can change their position by editing the date. In each pod are a star button and a pencil button.

For updates made directly in Facebook, you can change the date and location. You can also “Hide” this pod from the Timeline and “Delete Post” all together. If you simply “Hide” the post, it will still show up in your activity log, which only you can access anyway. For shares made at external sites, you don’t seem to currently have the ability to change the date.; however, you can “Hide from the Timeline” and “Unlike.” With the star button, you can make one of your status updates, likes, shares, or life events a “Feature” meaning it will enlarge and cross the timeline bar rather than sitting on one side or the other.

A still easy feature is adding a status update. In the same area you can add a photo, place or now a life event. Nifty for adding things to your timeline that doesn’t show—likely because it happened before you got on Facebook! Most of the Life Event categories is prefilled with background info you already provided. However specific events are included in each category such as “New Child,” “New Pet,” or “Loss of a Love One“ under “Family and Relationships.” What is really cool is that you can click on the timeline itself to add a status, photo, place or life event. A smaller bar, sans pods, appears on the right of the screen and shows the years for which things have been dated in your timeline. You can easily navigate to that time by clicking on it. If you’ve hidden your birth year, it simply shows “Born.” ☺

It is a good time to talk about the things one will need to consider with these changes. Of course, privacy is always a concern. Make sure you check out your privacy settings to make sure you are happy with who can search you and see your contact info (these are combined at present—should be separate, I think), who can post to your wall, who can see post made by others on your wall, default status privacy from external apps, tag control, apps, etc. Additionally, it is now rather easy for someone to see what you posted several years ago. You should peruse your own timeline before publishing to make sure you are still happy with all of your posts. What I don’t readily see, that used to simply appear in the old left column under Friends, is a pod for Family. Perhaps I’m just missing it. You can look for it by clicking the “About” button.

Overall, I’m happy.  I’m sure more changes are forthcoming. Meanwhile, I went ahead and published mine.