New Facebook Timelines are Beautiful…and Smart

• Posted by zerobeta on September 27th, 2011 at 10:16 pm
• Comments: 0

I never thought I’d use the words “Facebook” and “Beautiful” in the same sentence.  After experiencing the new “Timeline” feature – which is essentially a dramatic redesign of their profile page, I am singing a much different tune.

The Timeline takes all of the social data that you and your friends have created over time and put it in chronological order – stringing together a series of updates, photos, wall posts, profile changes, events, and telling a story.

Last night while browsing through my Facebook timeline I was amazed by the emotions it provoked.  Looking through the ups and downs of life, the beginnings (and ends) of relationships, the events that have changed your life, and the places you have been over time is truly an amazing experience.  Facebook has managed to take all your social data and truly create something personal and beautiful.

Aesthetics aside, strategically this is going to be a major win for Facebook.  At a time when they are facing serious competition from Google+, this update not only differentiates their product but will make users want to share more – on Facebook.

The Timeline feature dramatically differentiates the Facebook product from any competing social network.  Amit Kumar writes,

It’s remarkable that Facebook recognizes that it’s responsible for defining the Vision for social networking – and understands in a very deep way that the product it ships is merely a manifestation of this vision. This remarkable self-realization will be the core issue Google+ will have to grapple with.

Products are merely manifestations of Company Visions

Every successful company gets to be that way through a combination of clear, overarching vision; methodical execution, and stellar, competent teams. While execution and team make a product sing, it’s really the vision that users and customer are ultimately buying.

Competitors, like Google+ in this case, have to contend with this dilemma – either build a product close to the existing product manifestation, or redefine the vision, and build a completely different product to serve that new vision.

Facebook has something that Google doesn’t – all your social data.  No matter how much Google wants to copy Facebook’s features and try to improve upon them, they will never have the last 5-6 years of your life in photos, updates, and relationships.  The Timeline feature exposes this weakness.  If Google+ came out with a Timeline feature tomorrow it would still be years before it would be as beautiful as Facebook’s.  With the Timeline feature Facebook seizes on a major scarcity.

The new Timeline feature also makes me, for the first time, want to share more – on Facebook.  As someone who has not been a major Facebook user, it was a bit sad to browse through my Timeline and see some holes where holes should not be.  It makes me wish I documented my life a little better on Facebook.  Facebook even leaves gaps for when Facebook wasn’t invented – and I’m pretty sure many people will find ways to fill in these gaps with old photos over time.

While I’m sure many people will complain about such a major shift in the product, over time I believe this will be just as big as when they launched the News Feed.  Facebook’s product team has gotten a lot of flack recently about sub-par launches, but the launch of the Timeline will truly be their “Apple-moment”.