Facebook Friday: Timeline to be a Major Profile Overhaul

People have not stopped talking about the changes Facebook unveiled at yesterday's f8 conference. Granted, even the smallest announcement from the social networking giant spurs plenty of conversation, but the features Mark Zuckerberg revealed are definitely worth the buzz.

I covered the initial changes (the Ticker and Top News feed) Facebook already leaked in yesterday's post, but the most noteworthy announcement from yesterday was the Timeline feature.

The Timeline will eventually replace the current profile page, and is both a visual and conceptual overhaul.

The idea is that the Timeline would curate all of your past Facebook activity into a scrapbook of the most important moments. It's still in developer mode and not open to the public yet, but I took a screenshot of my profile so you can see what it would be like:

As you can see, the profile picture setup has changed. Instead of the 180x540 pixel size, you now have the square thumbnail picture and the giant Cover Photo. Also, the two column approach to the main section is also a big departure from the old profile setup.

Visually, there is a lot more real estate to work with, which is great news for designers and the artistically-inclined. It'll be a while until these new changes go into affect for everyone, but it'll be a dramatic change for the 800 million Facebook users.

Digg Overhauls Itself (Again) To Win Back Users (Again)

One of the most public breakups last year was the online hurricane that hit after thousands of Digg users walked out on the then-popular social news curating site.

It must have been a heartbreaking time for the site, watching all of those who had been so loyal storm out and leave Digg for the younger and more exciting Reddit. Sure, Digg tried to win the users back, but for the past few months we've watched Digg slowly decline into the Internet abyss.

Now 5 months after the breakup, Digg is cleaning itself up and getting back on the market. Digg has overhauled its look based on user feedback, updated profile statistics, and opt-in notifications. But just like anyone who changes themselves based on what an ex said just to win them back, it's probably too little too late.

The new features are a nice touch, but the reviews I've seen don't favor Digg all that much. So while the social curating site is struggling to regain the attention of the Internet, it looks like the Internet may just want to stay friends.

The Much-Anticipated MySpace Facelift

The Joan Rivers of the Internet, MySpace is continually fighting the online aging process and trying to stay in the social media conversation. Its latest facelift is actually its biggest overhaul to date, with a change both to its look and to the way the site is used.

Visually, MySpace is going with a modern, block look that you'd expect to see with iPad-optimized online magazines. But ascetics aside, there are several new features that are worth getting into:

• Everything but the kitchen sync - No longer wanting to compete directly with Facebook, MySpace has made it very easy for users to sync other accounts to their MySpace profile.
• Entertainment emphasis - MySpace has been trying to establish itself as a music, movies and media hub, and really pushes for that emphasis with the new user interface.
• The power of suggestion - MySpace now boasts a recommendation engine algorithm that provides suggestions based on your other activities.
• MySpace has unlocked the Badge-making Badge! - Keeping current with today's social media trends, MySpace users can unlock various badges and earn different levels of distinction.

With account syncing, profiles and social gaming, it seems MySpace is defining itself as a social network that's not sure it wants to be a social network. It's a confusing brand direction, but one that has raised a few eyebrows and garnered some much needed publicity.

The New Twitter Finally Makes It Way to the Land of 10,000 Lakes

Yesterday was a big day for the tweeting masses here in Minnesota, because that's when the new version of Twitter was made available to many of us around the Twin Cities. That group of new Twitter tweeters includes some of us around the Axiom office, so I thought I'd give more of a hands-on review of the changes as a followup to my post earlier this month.

For those of you who haven't gotten the updated version of Twitter, here's Axiom's page:

The major change is the visual redesign to a two-panel layout, reflecting the look of the iPad Twitter app. Personally I really like this new look, but like any visual overhaul it will vary from person to person.

As you can see, the customized background (particularly the left sidebar) did get affected. However a little resizing of the background image should remedy that, but it should be noted that there is a noticeable effect.

From a user standpoint, there are several changes that make the Twitter experience much smoother:

• You don't need to leave your Twitter page to view pictures or other profiles, they just show up on the right panel.
• Interestingly, while Facebook moved their 'Messages' tab from the top of the page to the sidebar, Twitter moved their 'Messages' tab from the sidebar to the top of the page, separating it from the '@ replies' and 'Retweets' sections.
• My favorite change? A search box. It sounds simple, but finding people or tweets on Twitter is much easier with a box on the main page.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, this is mostly just a visual change. It shouldn't revolutionize the way we live our 140-character lives. However, I do like the changes overall and I think it should make the Twitter experience as a whole a little better.

Have a Custom Twitter Background? Keep an Eye on the New Changes

My RSS feed this morning has been buzzing with news about the big changes coming to Twitter's website. If you haven't already seen it, here's a video Twitter released accompanying the overhaul. But to save you some reading, here's a quick look at the major moves being made:

• Visually, the new Twitter.com (especially the profile pages) will look a lot like the Twitter iPad app's layout, which has been highly acclaimed since its release.
• The default avatar is being changed from the bird to an egg.
• "More" no more: the "more" button is being scrapped, and now there will just be an endless stream of tweets.
• Introduction of the mini-profile: You'll be able to utilize a mini-profile for things like bringing up information on a user in the timeline and following users. 
• There will be a huge focus on multimedia support, with 16 partnerships planned. The companies named so far are YouTube, Flickr, Justin.TV, TwitPic, UStream, Vimeo, yfrog, TwitVid, Twitgoo, Plixi, Photozou, Kiva, DeviantART, Etsy, Kickstarter, and DailyBooth.

Did you notice how I didn't say anything about Twitter page dimensions? That's because I haven't heard anything either way about whether or not the box in the middle of the Twitter page (which can't be changed/formatted by users) will be adjusted.

This is an important piece of information for the thousands of Twitter users, myself included, who have custom backgrounds on their pages. If that main box gets moved or changed, there will be many unhappy Twitter users who will have to re-format their background images.

But like I said, I haven't heard that the Twitter page dimensions will be changed, I just haven't heard that they won't be changed. And if the box does get re-sized, you can expect to see a lot of users voicing their frustration 140 characters at a time.