Timelines and Tickers and Apps, Oh My!: The Complete Facebook Breakdown

Note: This blog post was originally posted on Knoxsocial's blog on September 27, 2011.

Editor’s Note: These are just some of the changes to Facebook. To get a complete list of updates visit this link. 

Wow. Alot of buzz going on in the social media realm last week. First, Google finished Beta and opens up Google+ to everyone. Second, Faceook did a News Feed overhaul (which was not so well-received). Third, Facebook held their f8 Conference last Thursday and made some pretty HUGE announcements. You may have missed some of these things but never fear because I’ve got the breakdown.

Google+

After three months of invites-only,  Google+ is now available to everyone. Furthermore, Google has finally given Goolge+ers the ability to search people and topics on Google+ (kind of seems like a no-brainer). For instance, a search for “amusement parks” would pull up conversations from users that have discussed this topic in addition to content from around the web.

Newsfeed Overhaul

Bye Bye “Top Stories” & “Most Recent”
Facebook has officially removed it’s “Top Stories” and “Most Recent” links to give you the most import news feed updates that have happened since the last time you logged on. For instance, if it’s been six days since you’ve last logged on, you will then see the top stories that have happened since then so that you don’t miss a beat. If you can’t go a day without logging on to Facebook then your news feed will be in chronological order. In addition to these changes, Facebook now allows you to customize your newsfeed by marking/unmarking updates that you deem most important or not important at all in your “Top Story” feed.

Ticker

In addition to this update is the introduction of the Ticker stream at the right corner of your homepage.

The Ticker is a real-time feed of everything that is happening within your social network.

Filters & Lists
Thought the changes stopped there? No way, Jose! Implementing a Google+-esque functionality, Facebook now lets you control who sees your posts as well as determine which posts show up on your feed – giving you the utmost control of your news feed (Goolge+ anyone?).

Although Facebook has had this concept available for some time, Facebook has recently made it a point to make this feature more prominent and easily accessible.

f8 Conference

Facebook revealed some crazy changes during the f8 Conference last Thursday. From the introduction to the new Profile Timeline, to  advanced media integration with partners such as Hulu and Spotify, to new action buttons that go beyond the normal “like” – you could say they’ve been keeping busy these last few months.

Profile Timeline
This new profile layout, I must say, is definitely something of merit.

Now you can have a complete timeline of all the important moments in your life portrayed through your past your photos, life events, wall posts, apps you’ve used, and places you’ve been – taking you all the way back to when you were born. Their goal is for everyone to fill in those gaps of time before Facebook ever existed so that you can have a complete view of your life.

Media Integration

Another awesome update is the integration of media partners to give your Facebook experience a slight face-lift.

Now you can listen to music on Spotify…..

watch a show on Hulu….

and read a news story through Yahoo News without ever leaving Facebook! In addition, you can see exactly what your friends are watching or listening to through the new Ticker and can even share the same experience by clicking on the their link.

“Like” turns into more verbs

Lastly, Facebook has decided to traverse past the trite “like” button and has revealed new actions, or Facebook Gestures, such as “watch”, “listen”, and “read”. And the fun doesn’t stop there as any Developer can manifest their own verb into a button. Perhaps it’s time for the often-suggested “dislike” button to soon emerge??

So that was a breakdown of some of Facebook’s new initiatives. But what does this mean for marketers? It’s hard to say but Mashable’s Todd Wasserman tells us that it will be even more imperative that businesses come up with innovative ways for fans to fuse their brand into a user’s life-stream whether it be via apps or engaging them with interesting and shareable content.

So the question is, what do you think about all of these changes? Do you think that these updates will have a major impact on marketers?