Facebook changes take-over timelines, annoys tech world

As you can see by this caption, Facebook changes have annoyed the tech world (here, top tech site Mashable.com’s editor-in-chief) with….gasp….too many changes. For those of us who live in the social media world, this is really no surprise considering Facebook has been making changes like some people change underwear. Makes it hard to be an expert in a world that is always changing.

From knowing who was “unfriending you” (totally not cool) to changing the presentation to a more “news-like” stream, Facebook debuted major changes to the new timeline. So I followed their instructions to get the new timeline to check it out.

http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/how-to-facebook-timeline/#27141Step-2

While the visual changes are quite obvious, the coming changes for the timeline are going to bring quite a different experience. For those Facebookers weary of all the changes (there have been so many, we know), this one seems a bit spectacular with the brand new layout released.

The first major change is the subscribe option – you get the news you want in your feed via the subscribe option and people who aren’t your friend can subscribe to your feed. Get the update straight from the horse’s mouth: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150280039742131.

Your timeline is totally different now too – with an emphasis on the historical side of your timeline, even to the point of encouraging you to scrapbook digitally.

Like gets another makeover. From fan to like to….well….anything really. Find a gesture, send it out.

And the list goes on.
Friend lists are changing. Details here: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150278932602131
Big News-styled photos in your timeline that load faster. Details here: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=10150262684247131.
But Mashable isn’t the only one saying, “wait a second.” What’s going on here? Forbes.com said the changes are a bit scary in this article here.

For a little humor: http://edudemic.com/2011/09/facebook-funny/.

But it’s #3 in this article by Mashable that brings some concern: http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-changes-roundup/?WT.mc_id=obinsite.

To quote the author Chris Taylor,

“Facebook apps need only ask permission once to share stories on your behalf. Although not as big a deal as the Timeline, this tweak may be one of the more controversial. Previously, apps had to ask every time they shared information about you in your profile. Now, the first time you authorize the app, it will tell you what it’s going to share about you. If you’re cool with that, the app never has to ask you again.”

Forget privacy. You’ve been sold out. Just because you authorize an application once doesn’t mean you want it to start having a mind of its own and take over your profile with activities you don’t want to share. And we definitely don’t want to have to keep racing back to our profile to remove stuff.

Everything about the new medium is to encourage more social activity and sharing, thus, in reality, providing more marketing data and behavior analysis. Even as a marketer, I become skeptical about the non-stop rush to share every aspect of our lives. While this openness has created opportunities for small businesses that didn’t exist before, this openness into our lives begins to prey on those who aren’t paying attention.

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