“What do you think Uncle Zuck will have for us?” – female presenter F8 Livestream (I missed her name, if you have it let me know and I’ll update)
Yesterday was a big day for the world’s number 1 social network. With rumors flying across the internet and around our office about what was and wasn’t going to be announced (iPad app anyone?!) one thing was clear, there were big changes a coming.
First and foremost is the new profile which has been renamed “Timeline”. This is Facebook’s way of reinvigorating user profiles, making them more engaging and getting people to spend more time on them. My initial reaction was much like a lot of other people’s: “that looks like MySpace”. With its modular based interface it really does resemble the ever traffic decreasing network’s profile pages, to the point where “Tom” even spoke of this in a Google+ post he wrote last night. However, having spent some time reading through Facebook’s reasonings, watching the marketing videos and playing around with the new experience there are clear differences that make this the new standard for people’s online profiles. My major takeout is that this is Facebook’s way to get that ever valuable emotional attachment that the best pieces of technology gain from their users and their dedicated fan base. My own experience of this was when I clicked 2006 on my Timeline and was presented with all my original activity from the first day I ever set foot on Facebook. The friend requests, uni pictures and a status update aimed at a close but sadly now distant friend. It was one of those moments when you use a piece of technology and it sends shivers down your spine and puts a smile on your face.
Timeline is quite brilliant in its simplicity of execution and ease of use and I am certain after the inevitable “I don’t like it” and “Facebook stop changing things” protests, people will learn to enjoy it and most likely spend some quality time stalk…*cough*, sorry, looking at their friends profiles. There is however a problem with Timeline. It is only as good as the users activity and data that they put into it. The over sharer and user who isn’t data wary will see beautiful Timelines that will encourage them to upload their whole history. Those however who are more careful (like yours truly) will get a slightly more subdued experience. Also I am sure many people don’t want to be greeted with the image of an ex or loved one who has since passed on and so may well never look beyond a certain date on their profile for that very reason. As Benjamin Cohen pointed out in his Google+ post, Timeline has also added context to posts and situations that wasn’t there before. Many people perhaps don’t want this and it certainly will create a new way of thinking. Perhaps it’ll shock some people into completely reevaluating what they post online. If I never see another “Oh I’ve had such a terrible day” or any other form of attention seeking post again it will be a good thing. I myself am strangely proud that my Timeline shows what can only really be a called a history of my Facebook activity that I have allowed to exist and doesn’t really give anyone a history of me as a person. Although a lover of all things new in tech and social I still have strong beliefs that only those who matter most should know certain details of my life.
If this is the future of brand pages this is an incredibly strong offering. For the first time, on Facebook, brands will be able to curate content on their outpost. Adding in their entire history and encouraging users to take a trip down memory lane with them. It could be something very special indeed. You can expect to see some creative people taking full advantage of their new Timelines once the functionality launches globally on the 30th September. It is also good to see the Timeline product looks equally as impressive on mobile devices.
“A new way to express who you are” – Mark Zuckerberg
One major thing for me that Timeline highlights however is just how messy the news feed is now. When Zuckerberg was switching between his Timeline and news feed the design differences and clutter made them look like two completely separate products. The news feed is now looking outdated and this is not helped by the chat bar and Ticker being combined and shoved at the side of the user’s screen. To my eyes this whole area is in need of a drastic design overhaul to bring back a much more simplistic and eye pleasing place to stay. I have opted to keep the chat bar closed as this to me seems to solve part of this problem.
Over the last couple of weeks users have been greeted with the new Facebook feature “Ticker”. This is a mini real-time news feed that shows every single piece of public activity that your friends are doing on or attached to the Facebook platform. Out of context Ticker seemed like an odd feature to many, including myself, but now we have been introduced to the idea of “frictionless apps” this makes a lot more sense. Ticker was touted last night as a news feed for lightweight activity so as not to fill your friends main news feeds. The main news feed has now been programmed with a clever AI to realise what the most important stories are to you and also recognise patterns amongst your friends’ activity and present that to you.
For me this is the biggest part of the new Facebook features that Mark Zuckerberg introduced. Apps are now added to your Timeline and any activity that you undertake that uses that app will appear in your friends Ticker. This allows for real time discovery and word of mouth activity on Facebook in a way that just hasn’t existed before. It works by asking for one off permission to be added to your Timeline and share your activity. After that you will never see a prompt from it again and it will automatically share your activity.
Building this into Facebook apps, websites, software, mobile platforms and apps, internet connected TVs/Blu-ray/DVD players, games consoles etc will allow for a new form of media sharing and discovery that far surpasses anything that has gone before it. Since sharing media consumption is an incredibly popular activity anyway this will most likely become a dominant force on the Facebook platform as increasingly more people add this functionality to their Timelines. As an off the cuff idea wouldn’t it be incredible to see a new form of music chart that takes into consideration what songs are the most popular on Facebook? Any form of media publisher or studio is going to have to innovate and take full advantage of this new form of sharing. Importantly users will be able to pause this activity being streamed by the app, remove the apps altogether or even remove individual pieces of activity that they have shared through their Timeline.
“You can connect to anything in anyway you want” – Mark Zuckerberg
The next big innovation that was announced was the fact verbs are now being added as buttons. Facebook recognised that a lot of activity was going unshared due to the fact that not everyone “Likes” what they read, watch or listen to. You will now be able to “watch” a movie or “read” a book or even “hike” a trail. Just like with adding apps to your Timeline by clicking on one of these buttons that activity is shared directly to the Ticker. If however lots of your friends click the same “read” button on an article online you will see this aggregated on your main newsfeed. Again this is allowing for a form of real-time serendipity that we have not seen before on the Facebook platform.
“I want to start by focusing on some key issues, the first is the importance of authentic identity. I am Mark Zuckerberg.” – Andy Samberg
During the introduction by Andy Samberg and then quickly followed by Mark Zuckerberg two major facts were highlighted. Facebook now has over 800 million users and at some point last week half a billion users logged on in one day. This level of activity is not only an impressive technical feat but also one that shows those within the walls of Facebook HQ are realising their goal of making the world more open and social. They have officially joined the big boys at Apple, Microsoft and Google in the technology world.
Facebook’s new innovations are intended to further cement it as THE social standard for the web. The challengers cannot challenge them unless there is a user backlash which with the new emotional ties that Facebook has developed is looking more unlikely by the day. I would suggest that Facebook doesn’t see itself as the next Google or Apple but they see themselves as the next email, the next standard in online communication. When you start to think of them as that kind of a platform you do begin to wonder just who can take Uncle Zuck’s crown as king of social.
Great article Sam. It’s going to be interesting, email – despite everyone relying heavily on it for the last ten or fifteen years, is actually, in today’s networked world, a fairly out-dated and poor way to communicate.