Facebook is like the largest study of social behavior and its uniqueness comes from the fact that it is an open, ever evolving, free information platform. Facebook had held it F8 conference, presented by its founder Mark Zuckerburg. They had introduced the all new revolutionary concept of Timeline and Ticker.

Ticker

There is a small ticker in the right top corner, it is not intrusive yet it gives a real time feed of all the activities of the friends group. On hovering over each ticker, you can see the details of their activities.

Timeline

Timeline is definitely the future; it changes everything in many ways that is not even realized yet. Timeline in short will tell the story of your life; it has everything about you clearly demarked yet continuous.

The potential here is huge, it really immortalizes a person, and their whole life is documented and presented in an appealing manner. It is the archive of someone’s life, starting from the day the account has been opened. That is a staggering amount of information stored in one single location. Each account and in total a group or network, has such a quantity of information, its amazing!

Timeline 2 is even more unique and utilizes the Venn diagram. Till date you could see the timeline between your contacts but now, you can see the complete picture of, not only your contact but also the group and even the full social circle. It takes data available in the public domain and compiles it as per your request. Hence the uniqueness, it is specific to your request.

Timeline first draws information from your content, then your friends, expand it to their friends and even relate it to a particular event thereby generating a complete picture of the event. The best part of this process is that it does not curtail privacy rights all the information gathered is based on the sharing, tagging and publicly available information. The same query might give different results to different users, since each individual might have personal and intimate information not meant for sharing therefore on compiling, the final product would be different.

Social Effects of Timeline

Imagine News, events, research, location based activity, all these are going to change. It keeps on updating with check-in. So when you want to know the story of a restaurant on a night, you will just have to use timeline along with check-in. The information is gathered and presented as it happens.

The facebook information can be used for marketing, research into different aspects of social life, games. The concept of gaming will change when game leagues are formed and the details of the season gone by or a specific game that was played.

The future seems to be in understanding the capabilities and applications of Timeline such as search mechanisms, sharing custom timelines, meta-data requirement. It definitely opens up the concepts on public information sharing.

About the author: Diana Maria is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and luxury. Beside this she’s fond of books. Recently an article on colnago bikes attracted her attention. These days she is busy in writing an article on Usb Gadgets.

PALO ALTO, CA –Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook will be shut down in March of 2012. Managing the site has become too stressful.

“Facebook has gotten out of control,” said Zuckerberg in a press conference outside his Palo Alto office, “and the stress of managing this company has ruined my life. I need to put an end to all the madness.”

Zuckerberg went on to explain that starting March 15th of next year, users will no longer be able to access their Facebook accounts.  That gives users (and Facebook addicts) a year to adjust to life without Facebook.

“After March 15th, 2012 the whole website shuts down,” said Avrat Humarthi, Vice President of Technical Affairs at Facebook. “So if you ever want to see your pictures again, I recommend you take them off the internet. You won’t be able to get them back after Facebook goes out of business.”

Zuckerberg said the decision to shut down Facebook was difficult, but that he does not think people will be upset.

“I personally don’t think it’s a big deal,” he said in a private phone interview. “And to be honest, I think it’s for the better. Without Facebook, people will have to go outside and make real friends. That’s always a good thing.”

Some Facebook users were furious upon hearing the shocking news.

“What am I going to do without Facebook?” said Denise Bradshaw, a high school student from Indiana. “My life revolves around it. I’m on Facebook at least 10 hours a day. Now what am I going to do with all that free time?”

However, parents across the country have been experiencing a long anticipated sense of relief.

“I’m glad the Facebook nightmare is over,” said Jon Guttari, a single parent from Detroit. “Now my teenager’s face won’t be glued to a computer screen all day. Maybe I can even have a conversation with her.”

Those in the financial industry are criticizing Zuckerberg for walking away from a multibillion dollar franchise. Facebook is currently ranked as one of the wealthiest businesses in the world, with economists estimating its value at around 7.9 billion.

But Zuckerberg remains unruffled by these accusations. He said he will stand by his decision to give Facebook the axe.

“I don’t care about the money,” said Zuckerberg. “I just want my old life back.”

The Facebook Corporation suggests that users remove all of their personal information from the website before March 15th, 2012. After that date, all photos, notes, links, and videos will be permanently erased.