Facebook changes: Timeline, Social News, Music, Movies, and new verbs – The Verge

Facebook adds a few Timeline features to Groups

2012-02-23T19:55:40-05:00

Mark Zuckerberg Laughing

Facebook isn't being shy about rolling out its Timeline interface to as many of the corners of its site as it can. In addition to the rumored addition of the Timeline to Brand Pages, the social network is also adding Timeline features to Facebook Groups. The most obvious change is the new full-width top image, though if the administrator doesn't set a lead image it defaults to a collage of the profile images from group members. There are also clearer sections for group topics, links, members, and events. The new topic prompts, "What should people post in this group?" is apparently designed to make it less likely that groups will be filled up …

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The Daily Show, Huffington Post, and more join Facebook Open Graph

2012-02-17T08:08:29-05:00

Jon Stewart Facebook daily show

Facebook has today announced that thirteen new media partners have joined its Open Graph timeline apps program. The Daily Show, Huffington Post, MSNBC, and CBS Local (New York and Los Angeles) are some of the latest big-name partners to sign up. Open Graph apps are "social adverts" that automatically post a user's activity into a box on their profile page, and to a ticker on their friend's news feed. Some of the new apps allow you to view content directly on Facebook, whereas others connect into the relevant website. In addition to the current sharing features, Facebook recently detailed a new API that will allow advertisers to feature Open …

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Brand Pages on Facebook to get Timeline upgrade soon?

2012-02-15T22:53:03-05:00

the verge facebook

Brand pages for social networks seem to be the new hip way for companies to promote themselves on the web, but Facebook's Timeline upgrade for regular user profiles has left its Pages looking comparatively dull. It looks like the balance could be restored soon enough, though, with Timeline apparently set to roll out to brand-focused Pages in the near future. AdAge is reporting that the update will likely be unveiled on February 29th at fMC, Facebook's marketing-focused conference. At first it should be limited to beta access for a few partners, but we should be seeing it roll out for all other brand pages later. It would seem to make sense f …

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Facebook reportedly trying out Open Graph ads, turning ‘watch,’ ‘listen,’ and ‘read’ into additional cash

2012-02-11T20:41:03-05:00

Open graph

Last month Facebook tested a new type of advert called featured stories, which allowed companies to publish your likes in the form of ads on your news feed. Now TechCrunch reports that Facebook is running a pilot program to bring the same idea to users that have performed certain actions inside Facebook apps. "Open Graph" actions, as Facebook calls them, are an extension of the site's "like" paradigm, and can be any verb, such as "listen," "watch," or "read." Companies can now take a group of friends that say, listened to an album from a particular artist through a Facebook app, and target ads at that group based on the artist, record label, …

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Facebook’s new photo viewer inspired by Google+?

2012-02-03T07:34:03-05:00

sam facebook photo viewer

Facebook is testing a new photo-viewing interface with a small number of users, and it bears certain… similarities to a competitor's design. That competitor would be Google+, which uses a near-identical combination of black frame, large picture on the left, and comment stream on the right. See for yourself - above is the new Facebook interface, and below is a shot from Google+. Unoriginal it may be, but we think being able to view comments and the picture at the same time is a big improvement in this brave new world of widescreen monitors.

It's not the first time Facebook has been accused of lifting from its new rival, with its revamped Lis …

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Facebook Timeline rolling out to everyone in the ‘next few weeks’

2012-01-24T10:31:10-05:00

The preparation period is over and there's no going back. Facebook just announced Timeline will be a mandatory change for everyone in "the next few weeks." In a terse blog post update, Facebook says "everyone will get timeline. When you get timeline, you'll have 7 days to preview what's there now." In case you haven't been following Facebook's Timeline news, once it's activated, you have seven days to tweak your new profile, change settings, and adjust images before it's visible to other users. Get started at Facebook's Timeline page - we recommend setting aside a few hours to get everything in order - and here's our guide on how to start pr …

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Facebook Open Graph launches with 60 new partners, brings new verbs to Timeline

2012-01-18T20:13:00-05:00

facebook open graph

Tonight Facebook is finally taking the wraps off of Open Graph, launching with 60 new partners ranging from smaller sites like Airbnb, Foodly, and Pinterest to big names like Ticketmaster and Rotten Tomatoes. Carl Sjogreen, Facebook's Director of Platform Product, debuted the new Open Graph partners and larger launch tonight, though it was initially shown off at last year's f8 conference. Oddly, Zuckerberg was nowhere in sight at this evening's brief launch.

The Open Graph initiative is a way to take data from other social networks and apps, and pull it into the Facebook ecosystem. For example, the music you're listening to on Spotify or ru …

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How to use Facebook Timeline

2011-12-19T10:40:04-05:00

facebook lead

Whether you're ready or not, Facebook has begun the Timeline rollout, and your lowly, simple profile page will soon be transformed into a glorious two-column scrapbook documenting every facet of your digital life. It's the most radical change in the history of the site, so unless you opt to shut down your account, we recommend going into this with the knowledge of what to expect and how to deal with it, whether or not you agree with Zuckerberg that a life-spanning scrapbook best represents humans in the digital age.

Wired reports that the project initially grew out of the "Memories" hack, an idea developed at one of Facebook's spring 2011 ha …

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Facebook iOS update adds Timeline, friend lists, subscriptions, and more

2011-12-18T13:11:46-05:00

facebook timeline

Several days after initially appearing on Android and mobile, Facebook Timeline is now available for iOS via the 4.1 update. It also adds access to your Facebook Lists and subscriptions, neither of which were available in the major 4.0 update from earlier this fall. To see your Timeline after updating from the App Store, tap the navigation button in the top left and select your profile - you'll find your Lists accessible farther down the sidebar. Assuming you've enabled Timeline, it should show up in a single-column view that lets you scroll through your personal biography as filtered through Facebook. The new Timeline features are only avai …

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Facebook Timeline available on Android and mobile

2011-12-15T13:05:04-05:00

facebook timeline

Just a few hours after launching the new Timeline profile design globally, Facebook is debuting the new feature on Android and m.facebook.com. The smaller screen keeps the mobile timeline constrained to a single column instead of the web version's dual column setup, but you'll find a lot that's similar here. Now, when clicking through to a friend, you can scroll through their history (or your own) by days, weeks, months, and years. Images feature much more prominently in the new Android app, and swiping left or right moves you through maps, photos, subscribers and more. While Timeline is coming to iOS soon, according to Facebook, there's no …

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