Facebook’s new Timeline is fantastic, but a bit buggy. For the record I like it. However many are not liking it because it’s well …they say “it’s damn creepy”.
Initial polling this weekend amongst teens and adults had the following reaction.. “that (Timeline) sucks”. Not surprising because all new user interface changes get flamed or fallout by users.
In the case of Facebook’s new Timeline it’s worse because it’s well.. it’s a damn radical change.
I say it will stay around and go through a few iterations. At the end of the day it will be the way we work and communicate. A bold plan from a bold company. Land grab in action? Yes it is. Is that a bad thing? Not to me it isn’t.
I posted my views on what it will mean for users in the future. link here.. In short, Timeline will change the user interaction paradigm – it will turn users into “developers”. That is if Facebook goes down that path.
The only issues Facebook has to deal with is “user trust and user experience”. If Facebook preserves those two things then they will be ok.
Privacy Issues and Land Grab?
Back to the what some are saying is “creepy”. Please read these posts for more info (see below)
Dave Winer – Facebook is scaring me
Nic Cubrilovic – Logging out of Facebook is not enough
This is good posts to read to give you a feel of the “land grab” going on in the web world right now.
Love your article but please stop with BS and hate on Silicon Valley execs. He meant to say Facebook execs. Not that I agree with him at all. (see thread below)
And, until Facebook owns the browser we use, there is a simple way to opt-out, and I’ve done it myself. Log out of Facebook. And if Facebook had a shred of honor they would make their cookie expire, right now, for everyone, and require a re-log-in, and a preference choice to stay permanently logged-in. With a warning about the new snooping they’re doing. Probably a warning not written by them, but by Berkman, the EFF or the FTC. (Yes, dear Republicans, I trust a bureaucrat more than I trust a tech exec in Silicon Valley.) #
