Timeline - Finally a Reason to Use Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg introduces Timeline at F8

I got caught up watching the F8 Keynote speech this morning on Mashable. Which is unusual in its self because I'm not that much of a Facebook user but with the introduction of Google+ I was interested to see if Facebook would do anything that would leap it far ahead of its new rival. With Timeline I think they've delivered something special. See the short video below.

Before I continue, just a quick comment on the F8 speech, which went for 1 hour and 40 minutes. The opening joke by SNL's Andy Samberg impersonating CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whilst funny to begin with, kind of stretched into something weird to the point where I was just glad to see him get off the stage. I was definitely with Mark when he jokingly said "Don't start doing impressions".

The rest of the keynote was delivered in Mark's somewhat awkward but still very listenable style. I felt he really did explain the changes well. The highlight for me though was when Chris Cox, FB Vice President of Product Management, came onto the stage and explained the inspiration behind Timeline. A fascinating story in its self. I'd recommend you watch the keynote speech just for that - which starts at about 1 hour and 24 minutes in.

Back to Timeline and my thoughts. In a nutshell, to me, Timeline is like the Super Profile page you've been waiting for. It's the scrapbook of your life. It doesn't just record your activity on Facebook as it happens, it also allows you to add to it retrospectively. For example, if you have a photo of you as a very young child, you can add it into your timeline so it appears chronologically in the year it was taken. That ability to me is important enough on its own.

In many ways your Facebook profile could become the ebook of your life.

Imagine using your Timeline as a basis for a book to preserve your family history. I'm sure print on demand publishers like Blurb will see an opportunity here. Pick a year from your timeline and turn it into a gift book for family.

How about all those videos you've uploaded or the music you've shared. Create a DVD of a year or two in your life, complete with the music you liked that year, perhaps?

There's certainly a lot of potential for how Timelines can be used and why you'd want to spend time curating yours. It's the kind of profile page that you won't just fill out and occasionally update - if you remember. It's something you'll probably visit just to see how it looks... and it does look good.

I have to hand it to the designers and programmers of Timeline. It really is something you want to look at just to see if the automatic algorithms are really picking out the highlights or whether you need to tweak things a bit.

I'm sure when Timeline is finally rolled out to everyone on Facebook there will be the usual backlash of people who liked the old Facebook. They've already started with the recent introduction of the new look news feeds and live ticker. Both of which I like a lot - especially the live ticker.

In the big scheme of things the complainers will settle down because Facebook, wisely (or arrogantly depending on your point of view), usually sticks to its guns when it introduces change. Quite frankly I want to see Timeline succeed... and maybe Google+ will then look at its self and do something complimentary rather than competitively.

I haven't even gone into all the ways the new look Facebook will help you discover all kinds of things from your friends as they discover them. It's probably better if you watch the keynote speech for that.

All I'm saying is, for the first time, I'm looking forward to using Facebook... and that's a paradigm shift for me.

Comments

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

LEIF Tech ESnowboard - It's an Electric RipStik with Training Wheels... and I want one!

The LEIF Tech ESnowboard , whilst it moves a lot like a snowboard, is really more related to a RipStik combined with an Electric Skateboard . Granted the hooks for your feet on the top are very snowboard like, they're not entirely essential (and it's recommended beginners remove them until they're used to general riding around). That said, watching someone fully proficient with riding a LEIF ESnowboard is kind of like watching a snowboarder riding on concrete in the Summertime... and it looks like so much fun.

The Worst Book I Have Ever Read - Gulp: Travels Around the Gut by Mary Roach

TET and Mary Roach's Book, Gulp . I 'm the kind of person who only reads one physical book at a time. For context I consider a 'book' to be anything over 100 pages of mostly text. Basically your typical work of fiction novel or factual biography. It's not that I can't read more than one book at a time, I just choose not to because I don't set a lot of time aside for reading. Maybe 30 minutes a day when I'm on a good run with a really engaging text. Little did I know that Mary Roach's Gulp: Travels Around the Gut *, a book of 317 pages (minus the Acknowledgments and Bibliography) would become a bottle neck for my reading for the next three and a half years. As such, I'm calling it the worst book I have ever read. Despite how long it took me to read, it is not a bad book in the slightest, and is in fact, quite light, somewhat entertaining, reading for a book that explores the science, and the resilience of the human digestive system. I'm no st...

Skateboarders Who Ever Dreamed of Dropping In on a City Building - Sandro Dias Just Lived Your Dream

Dias's drop-in from one of the lower platforms for practice. Image: © Marcelo Maragni/Red Bull I f you're a skateboarder living in a city you've probably looked at a building that has skate ramp vibes and imagined dropping in on it... well Professional Skateboarder, Sandro Dias didn't just imagine. The Perth Telstra Building as depicted in this fantasy poster print, Forbidden Skate Ramp by Harry Young. If you lived in Perth, Western Australia, any skateboarder who saw the top of the Telstra Building likely had the same thought about the ramp like quarter pipe at the top. Also, back in the day there was a classic skateboarding poster going the rounds that depicted Sydney as a literal skatepark with ramps built up, down, and over numerous buildings. Sandro Dias, who broke the record for the world's tallest drop-in on the 26th September 2025 by dropping in on a mega ramp built on the side of the curved façade of the 22-storey Centro Administrativo Fernando Ferrari (C...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog