Facebook this week announced the release of 60 new apps to be used in the new Timeline Facebook feature, which encourages people to curate their life story on one single page using a timeline from cradle to grave covering photos, messages, videos and everything else. The apps aim to both encourage users to switch to the new feature and also to integrate more and more activities within Facebook itself so that users have no need to leave their home page on the social network. In addition the apps are designed to get users sharing their social activities with friends who are also online.
The list of apps includes TripAdvisor, Gogobot, Kobo, Pose, Rotten Tomatoes, Pinterest, Foodily, Foodspotting, Ticketmaster and many many more. Artfinder lets people add artworks to their timeline that are important to them and to share any photos from galleries, whilst Soundcloud lets you upload and share all your favourite tracks and tunes. Once the apps have been added to Timeline the user can immediately start using them and integrating them into their social media activities. In addition Facebook noted that they will be rolling out more and more apps every month.
Facebook is keen for users to move over to Timeline, believing that it will be a far more visually expressive way for their users to share their life stories. Speaking at one of the world’s largest annual developers conferences (to an audience packed with developers, small IT businesses, contractors and umbrella companies) last year Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg described the idea behind the new Timeline feature:
“Millions of people curate stories of their lives on Facebook every day and have no way to share them once they fall off your profile page…we have been working on ‘timeline’ all year…it’s the story of your life and completely new way to express yourself. It has three pieces: all your stories, your apps and a new way to express who you are.”
Zuckerberg explained that it was his aim that people could have complete control of how their content was laid out online and how it appeared within the Facebook framework. As such, users would be able to fill in the gaps so that their early years and pre-Facebook life could also be part of their profile.
In the last couple of days Facebook have since added that Timeline will shortly be mandatory and that if you do not change over they will do it for you. It is clear that the future lies in Timeline, whether we like it or not!
