While we're sure more than a few of you have already got the Timeline through posing as a developer, for everyone else the rollout begins today. The Timeline is Facebook's "new way of expressing who you are," which blurs the current dividing lines in your profile and mixes the content from your information section (including your Likes and music taste) with the links and statuses posted onto your wall. It also makes older stories far more accessible, meaning that people can skip back a couple of years and see the photos of you as a drunken mess in college. New Zealand's set to be the first to receive the public rollout, with Facebook saying that this limited test bed will be used to optimize the new design's speed and performance. However, we've seen reports already of users in other countries receiving the invitation to adopt the new profile style, so it seems that a wider release might be coming sooner than expected. We're already bracing ourselves for the wave of complaining statuses, but while you're waiting, check out our tour of the new design.
Facebook's Timeline rollout begins today

There are 60 Comments. Add yours.
Should read new way of exposing who you are.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 8:14 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I got it today. It is horrible, and not just in an “I hate change” kind of way.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 8:24 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
What do you mean by that? I’m curious to know!
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 8:31 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I’ve been in the dev preview for a long time and love it. What are your complaints?
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 8:52 AM EST via mobile reply Recommend (14) Flag actions
I agree.. I’ve had it for a while now n think its pretty good.. Didn’t like the other changes though..
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 9:30 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yeah, what’s so horrible about it?
It’s much better designed and you don’t have to do any tricks to customize your profile. Seriously, it just looks better. Finger-lickin’ good. Like The Verge.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 8:53 AM EST reply Recommend (15) Flag actions
I am not sure what there is to hate…I’ve had it for a good bit now and it’s basically just a new way of showing what was already shown on the previous profile layout…just cleaner.
Posted on Dec 11, 2011 | 8:07 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m too busy loving Path…
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 8:25 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Amen.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 1:09 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I have no problem with being able to access my older content. I’ve been wanting that for quite a while.
This… this is not what I want.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 8:41 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The new profile/timeline reminds me of www.about.me or www.flavors.me with the splash page. it offers much needed expression to your profile with out becoming messy like myspace
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 9:09 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I can’t stand when Facebook makes changes. Not because of the changes themselves but the WAHmbulance that plows through my news feed. I don’t understand why it frustrates me so much when people complain about a free service. I now just link them to https://www.facebook.com/deactivate.php
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 9:17 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
You are kind of sounding like a wahmbulance yourself
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 1:11 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend (3) Flag actions
I hate to become one of those people that complains when Facebook make a change but I really don’t like this lol. I tried it out with that developer trick before but removed it after a day. Of course I will just put up with it though, until all my friends switch to Google+, which should be around.. never.. :(
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 9:33 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
For G+ to seriously compete with Facebook, they need to take users AWAY from Facebook, which will never happen. Too late to the game.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:05 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I agree, but I also imagine someone saying “too late in the game” about MySpace a few years ago when Facebook showed up, know what I mean?
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 1:57 PM EST via mobile reply Recommend Flag actions
I’ve adjusted to every change Facebook has made, except one. You see, I’ve been using lists since I signed up. I had all my lists set up just the way I wanted them because back then, you could pre-determine every privacy setting for each list you made invidually. Now that they’re promoting their own lists, they’ve completely removed the ability to add or edit my custom made lists. I can’t see the specific privacy settings of every individual custom-made list, I just have to hope I can remember exactly what it was before the control was removed. And I can’t modify those controls anymore.
:(
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 1:36 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The blog post in the source says that it will start rolling out in New Zealand and then to everyone else in the near future. The “near future” could mean anything.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 9:45 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Trying to delete all your content is a real mess. I try to delete all the stuff I posted but my friends keep telling me that they see posts from me I can’t even see myself. This is the biggest privacy breach I’ve seen in my entire life.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 9:56 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Are you using Timeline? Are you just removing the posts from your Timeline?
If your friends don’t also have Timeline activated on their profiles, then they will just see your old profile.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:00 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
False. I have timeline and some of my friends still have their old profiles
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:53 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Right. What I said was, if your friends have the old profile, they won’t see your timeline. They’ll see your old profile.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 12:27 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
don’t live in the public eye if you are worried about “privacy” anyone THAT worried about privacy…should just be a hermit.
Posted on Dec 11, 2011 | 8:09 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m really worried about old content. I’ve gone through and hidden a lot of things from audience, but the me-of-today is the me that I want people to see, not the me from five years ago, or the me from seven years ago when I joined Facebook. I wish that there were some way, when going to TimeLine, that you could de-activate your profile for a few hours, giving you time to prune everything old about you, and then enable it for the rest of the world. When I switch to the new profile, there’s just going to be a time when the me-of-7-years-ago is more visible than the me-of-today, and that’s counter intuitive to what a social network like Facebook should be about.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:00 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
How do you know that’s what will happen?
I have it, and it’s really not that alarmingly bad. You’re being dramatic. It’s still much, much easier to see your current content, than to sit and wait for years of old crap to load in. Sure, you can see some old posts, but Facebook chooses the “important” ones, and to see all of your posts you’d have to sit for awhile.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:04 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I think I just don’t know exactly how it works, and given Facebook’s track record of changing the rules of privacy and how settings are handled with little preparation, I am cautious about it. So, I don’t know that it will happen, but Facebook has never given me any reason to really trust them with how some content is handled. The unannounced rolling news feed on the right side of the screen, that broadcasts every message you write to anybody to all of your friends and followers, is a good example of something recent that Facebook has not done a tremendous job notifying people about.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:35 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
for some, the past should stay in the past.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:57 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
If anyone is that legitimately embarrassed about their digital past (ignoring the fact that something so embarrassing shouldn’t have been posted in the first place), they can just delete their account and start anew.
Whether Timeline makes you aware of it or not, your past is still there on Facebook. People can still see it, even without the new update.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:04 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
You make that sound soooooo easy. Just delete and start again! Reestablish all the friends and content you had before!
Like it’s a lightswitch or something. C’mon man, think about that before suggesting that as a real solution.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 2:08 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
People get new phone numbers, new email addresses, and new homes with new street addresses all the time.
Should people always live in the same home, for their entire life, because it’s slightly inconvenient to talk to their friends and let them know they’re moving? Is it that much harder to redirect your friends to your new Facebook profile?
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 5:26 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I can’t wait for all the complaint statuses. They’ll be especially bad, seeing that I’m a student in high school…
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:07 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Hopefully this will be the less-cluttered, refined look that Facebook needs.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:08 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
its more cluttered then ever
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:56 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I love it. I just hate Facebook.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:10 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
AndyP. Funny seeing you here…. ;-)
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:36 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
What’s with this crazy “click to expand” for the cover photo? You can see it in the picture for this article as well, notice how the dog picture is a really awful aspect ratio and almost looks like its cut in half? You then have to click the picture to get the full thing…
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:25 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Huh? There’s no click to expand. Hover gives you click to change, and there’s some settings buttons below the cover photo, but nowhere changes the size of it. You can reposition it though to better make use of the widescreen format.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:42 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
http://i.imgur.com/EDAaW.png
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:05 AM EST reply Recommend (2) Flag actions
Yeah, it’s definitely there. It seems brand new, too.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 12:18 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Although you’re wrong about the cover photo, I do agree with your sentiment when it comes to featured stories on the Timeline.
For instance, if you post a photo on your wall (Timeline), and you decide it’s particularly important, you can “feature” it, making it span the whole width of your page. However, if this is a portrait photograph, it’s likely that most of what you want to be seen in the photo will be cropped out to make it landscape. It really doesn’t work too well yet.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:47 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
http://i.imgur.com/EDAaW.png
three screenshots of my timeline, I’m scrolled to the top of my browser in each one.
1. unexpanded
2. roll over “click to expand”
3. expanded
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:03 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Must be a new feature. I’ve had Timeline for some time and there is no click to expand for me.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:06 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
That’s weird, I had the developer preview for a while then disabled it. I read this article and checked and I seem to be one of only a few of my friends who have the new layout, this was one differences that I noticed right away.
Its not only annoying, but ruins the whole idea of a cover photo for me
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Is it some kind of support for lower resolution displays maybe? Or maybe just a new feature that those of us on the developer preview don’t have yet?
Agree that it’s weird though! Who is going to bother with the extra click..?
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:37 AM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
I actually have the developer preview and I’m thinking it must be lower resolution support, because my MBP didn’t register it last night, but the old iMac I’m on right now is showing it front and centre.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 12:19 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Yep, it’s a low-resolution feature. Resizing my browser window made the click to expand appear.
As long as you have a reasonable screen resolution and you make your browser window as tall as you can, it shouldn’t be an issue.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 12:30 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Nope. It’s a new “feature”. I got Timeline the day the hacked was announced and added a cover photo soon afterwards. At some point within the past few weeks, I noticed that the cover photo got compressed and that there was a “click to expand” button when you hovered over the picture. I still have the same computer and it is doing this for low and high-res pictures that I upload.
Posted on Dec 13, 2011 | 2:04 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I rarely even go to the site, so I went to check and see. No timeline, no biggie.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:36 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’ve been using it since they previewed it… It actually made the Facebook interface more than tolerable to me, as I had been considering deactivating my account for some time. I find the “cover image” and the redesigned “about me” sections to be rather attention grabbing, which I like, as well as the “photos, places, people, likes” hero section.
However, while the new UI is visually appealing… the timeline is a privacy nightmare if you ask me. When I switched to using it there were pictures and wall posts on my timeline which I would rather not recall, and which had (over time) fallen out of public view. The timeline resurrected basically everything, and going through it hiding things was a bit of a pain.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:46 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I’m an open minded guy, always loving changew but this is something I just do not like, and so far everyone who loves it seems to be from outside the USA.
This seems to be aimed at those really outgoing, social kind of people. The kind we see in their promos for timneline. Not real world use.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:55 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Right. How dare a social network introduce a feature that encourages being social.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 12:26 PM EST reply Recommend (1) Flag actions
Bet i will be the last to get it. I always seem to be.
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 10:57 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Instead of whining about it, you could get it for yourself.
http://gizmodo.com/5843053/get-facebooks-new-timeline-now
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:08 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
who said he was wining? ahhh got to love foreigners
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:13 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
I had tried it with the developper trick. Kinda liked it. But at the same time I really curate what is posted so I don’t mind it much. I love change!
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:09 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
i like the look of it just dont think i will be telling a story on it like they want me to… but have to keep an open mind
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 11:29 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
For the ones who has the real timeline right now can you go in your settings and tell us what is your language ?
Posted on Dec 07, 2011 | 1:16 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
Have yet to receive the timeline update.
Posted on Dec 12, 2011 | 9:52 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
If you need a complete, step by step walkthrough to learn how to use it, we created a video series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjaLu83oQxo
Posted on Dec 15, 2011 | 11:04 PM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
The long awaited Facebook Timeline is finally being officially released.
You can experience it now in just 2 easy clicks: Enable Facebook Timeline
Posted on Dec 16, 2011 | 1:50 AM EST reply Recommend Flag actions
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