Even though we’ve told you how to get Facebook’s timeline right now, so far the people who are using it appear to be technology enthusiasts and developers.
Of course, the timeline doesn’t even go into beta testing until September 30, at which point people who aren’t yet using the feature will be able to see the timelines already enabled by those of us who already have it.
Right now, only timeline users can see other timelines.
Meanwhile, since Facebook’s timeline isn’t even in beta testing yet, suggested features from real developers and tinkerers like yours truly might make the live rollout across the site, right?
And Facebook’s own promotions of timeline appear to include some things that might show up as soon as the beta but that we don’t see in the current version.
If this profile upgrade goes like past ones, we might have an initial phase in which users get to opt in to timeline if they want, and then Facebook would make it mandatory.
That segues to the first item on my wish list for Facebook’s timeline.
1. Make the timeline permanently optional for users, just because it’s so much involved than any previous profile upgrade.
2. Facebook should allow people who’ve activated the timeline to be able to revert to the original version, at least during an interim period, without having to remove the Developer app from their accounts.
3. We should be able to click like directly on someone’s cover image, without having to click over to a photo album to do so.
4. Inline privacy controls need to be visible in the timeline the way they were in the previous iteration of the profile. This includes the cover image, where at the moment it looks like the only option for visibility is fully public.
5. For those who choose to limit visibility of their cover image, there ought to be the option to create a second, public cover.
6. Now that the timeline introduces chronological organization dating back more than a week, we need to be able to tag images with dates they were taken, including dates that predate the launch of Facebook (for the images we scan in). The video promoting timeline makes it look like this is a capability, but that’s not the case in the version that’s now available.
7. The timeline makes individual profiles so rich with content that they now need their own search — the site’s search bar should offer the ability to search within a single profile. Or perhaps a third-party developer could come out with an application that adds the ability to search an individual profile.
Again, it’s possible that any or all of the aforementioned things might appear in the beta or live version of timeline, if not some other point in the not-too-distant future.
What would you like to see in Facebook’s timeline, readers?
Source: All Facebook
Wednesday, September 28, 2011