Facebook pushes out Timeline of users' online lives
Users have a week to hide embarrassing pictures and status updates
Computerworld - Remember that photo of you at last year's company holiday party? It was so embarrassing the day your Facebook friends kept commenting on it.
Well, it's baaaack.
Facebook announced today that it's making its new Timeline feature available worldwide.
The Timeline does exactly what it sounds like it will do -- it's designed to automatically organize your status updates, relationship changes, videos and photos (yes, even the embarrassing ones) into an interactive timeline of your online life.
Timeline isn't brand new. Facebook announced its development at the company's f8 conference in September. As of today, however, it's widely available.
"Timeline gives you an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect your most important moments," wrote Paul McDonald, a Facebook engineer, in a blog post. "It also lets you share new experiences, like the music you listen to or the miles you run."
McDonald added that Facebook will be adding to Timeline, which will also be available on Android and m.facebook.com, over the next few months.
Some users should already be seeing an announcement at the top of their profile about getting Timeline. Anyone who doesn't have the announcement yet and doesn't want to wait for it, can go to the Introducing Timeline page and push the change.
In his blog, McDonald noted that moving to the new Timeline will replace a user's old profile page but none of their status updates or photos should be lost. And when users begin using Timeline, they'll have seven days to review everything that appears before it goes public.
He also said that users can see how their Timeline appears to Facebook friends by clicking on the "gear menu" at the top of their Timeline. Just select "View As."
Have something you'd like to highlight in your Timeline, like the day you got a new job or your wedding day? Roll over that information and click on the star that appears to expand the update.
Conversely, if you want to keep something private, like that drunken office party, move the cursor over it and click on the pencil that appears. That allows you to hide something, edit it or even delete it.
According to McDonald, users also can use the privacy dropdown menu to adjust who can see any of their posts. They can select to make something public or elect to just make it visible to friends or they can even select "Only Me" so no one else can see it.
Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld. Follow Sharon on Twitter at
@sgaudin, on Google+ or subscribe to Sharon's RSS feed
. Her e-mail address is sgaudin@computerworld.com.
Facebook watch
- Shareholders sue Facebook, Zuckerberg, Morgan Stanley
- Facebook stock slumps for third day
- Nasdaq's Facebook glitch came from 'race conditions'
- Update: Facebook IPO stumbles out of the gate
- Update: Facebook shares rise as trading begins
- Facebook sets IPO share price at $38
- Facebook raises stock offering, shoots for $18.5B with IPO
- QuickPoll: Is Facebook's IPO overhyped?
- U.S. Facebook users skeptical of site's privacy, longevity
- With IPO looming, Facebook boosts stock price range
Read more about Web 2.0 and Web Apps in Computerworld's Web 2.0 and Web Apps Topic Center.


- Excel 2010 Cheat Sheet
- Register for this Computerworld Insider Cheat Sheet and gain access to hundreds of premium content articles, guides, product reviews and more.
- Practice Management: Double Billing Rate and Improve Patient Services
- Would you like to double your billing rate and achieve faster payment for services?
Download this customer success story to see how One Health... - Mission Critical Data Explosion and Customer Case Study
- Would you like to double your tier 1 storage capacity while simultaneously reducing your storage footprint?
Download this customer success story to see how... - Protecting Against Database Attacks and Insider Threats: Top 5 Scenarios
- Read this new eBook to learn the top five scenarios and essential best practices for preventing database attacks and insider threats.
- Database Activity Monitoring Is Evolving
- Read the analyst report and learn how you can leverage the core capabilities of a DAP solution for better database security.
- Establishing a Strategy for Database Security is No Longer Optional
- The options for securing increasingly valuable databases are very broad and deep, and can be confusing. This research provides an overview of three... All Web 2.0 and Web Apps White Papers
- Distributed Database Security with Real-time Monitoring
- View this demo and learn how IBM InfoSphere Guardium database activity monitoring can help protect your sensitive data in distributed DBMS environments with...
- InfoSphere Warehouse Packs Demo
- These flash modules make warehousing more tangible and relevant to business users through detailed explanations of the InfoSphere Warehouse Packs.
- Delivery Management -- Extending Lifecycle Management
- Date: Wednesday, June 20, 2012, 1:00 PM EDT
Siloed organizations continue doing the wrong things and doing things wrong, leading to increased costs,... - Leverage automation today to reduce IT complexity
- Date: Tuesday, June 5, 2012, 2:00 PM EDT
Whether your B2B complexity is caused by multiple technologies due to M&A, business or application specific... - Redefine Expectations in the Data Center
- Need to do more with less? Watch this video to learn how HP ProLiant Gen8 servers can help your business deploy servers three... All Web 2.0 and Web Apps Webcasts
