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"Facebook Timeline sounds like a good idea. It\u2019s your life, organized and summarized for public consumption \u2014 or as public as you want to make it. It\u2019s your own two-hour biopic  on a single page.  It will, ultimately, replace Facebook\u2019s profiles, to become the way we view each other on the popular social networking service.  \nIt may also be Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg\u2019s biggest risk since launching the social network in 2004.\nFacebook calls these grand changes an effort to  \u201CRecover the Past\u201D. It\u2019s true, finding what you posted on Facebook on Day One is hard, and sifting through all you\u2019ve said and done to find what\u2019s important is even harder.  Personally, I love history and agree that it\u2019s devastating to see so much of our life histories lost to the sands of time. \nThose with the richest histories, though, probably aren\u2019t even on Facebook or very active in the service. They likely see Facebook as an inconsequential bother that they\u2019d rather ignore.  Timeline, which honestly looks more complex than current profiles, certainly won\u2019t encourage 75-year-old Aunt Mae to share her childhood pictures and stories of growing up poor in Romania.\nA Matter of Trust\nI don\u2019t know if anyone is ready to trust Facebook\u2019s algorithm to decide what to show and hide as the Timeline grows. Up top is full of minutiae. Down below, it\u2019s an outline. But what Facebook deems important: \u2014 a birth, first steps, new job \u2014 may only be the highlights. Will it know that the hat I wore in four or five pictures six years ago was important to me because a dearly departed relative gave it to me? I\u2019ll have a recollection of the hat, but have a harder time finding it in Timeline if Facebook deems it less important. To be fair, though, it\u2019s not clear just how much editing we\u2019ll be able to do on our timelines.  The better question might be, who would want to spend time editing them, anyway?\nThe reality is that the story of most people\u2019s lives in Facebook\u2019s Timeline will be a relatively short one. If they joined in 2008, then they have a three year history. If they joined last week, well, they\u2019re just babies, in Facebook Timeline terms. Zuckerberg said you can go back through the Timeline and fill in all your historical details. Most people have a hard time filling out even their most basic information on Facebook and other social service. I run a across a lot of empty or skeletal profiles on Facebook and Google+. People fill in the details when there\u2019s a real value proposition. So LinkedIn has some of the richest profiles because every bit of work history you enter could help you network to the next big job. What is the great benefit in Facebook?\nSome might argue that Facebook Timelines and the new Open Graph that will work with it are simply new ways  for Mark Zuckerberg to mine your data. It\u2019s a fair argument. Numerous times throughout the presentation, Zuckerberg and other Facebook execs talked about patterns. You know who likes data patterns? Marketers and advertisers, who also happen to be Facebook\u2019s partners. \nGranted, the real-time stuff that Open Graph will make possible, like watching movies together and listening to music with your Facebook friends, will not be front and center in the Facebook Timeline. They\u2019ll be part of your real-time activity. But this activity will be collected in the Timeline as a history that becomes part of your Timeline. Over time, you build a pattern within the Open Graph app and with those who are, say, sharing the same activity with you. \nPatterns\nThese patterns and group sharing will appeal to some. It certainly appeals to everyone in Facebook\u2019s corporate offices. Mark Zuckerberg loves it because he\u2019s 27 and his world revolves around innovation. He loves new features. Timeline is the biggest new Facebook feature of all.  Yet, Mark\u2019s Facebook users are not all like him. Many are middle-aged and are less interested in the new than they are what simply works.  The youngest generation, those who live their lives out loud online, may heartily embrace Timelines, but older generations are less interested in what they did 10 or 20 years ago and more concerned with what\u2019s happening now.\nZuckerberg should keep in mind that Facebook succeeded with the Moms and Dads who traditionally left \u201Cthe new\u201D to their kids. They use Facebook almost as much as their kids and when the kids have moved onto the next new thing, they\u2019re still in Facebook getting real-time information about stuff that matters today. Though studies show that your mom might represent the typical social gamer, the moms I know are not using Facebook social apps or wondering how they can tell their life stories on the service. Instead they're trading new photos, jokes and rumors about which teachers are getting tenure and intelligence how one might get her son into a closed-out SAT course. \nWith Timeline, and to a certain extent Open Graph,  Mark Zuckerberg is once again racing forward to the next big thing. Let\u2019s hope that he doesn\u2019t inadvertently leave his users behind.\nWhat do you think of Facebook Timeline and Open Graph? Tell us in the open thread and by voting in the accompanying poll.\nMore F8 Coverage:\n\nPrepare Yourselves: Facebook To Be Profoundly Changed \nFacebook Now Has 800 Million Users \nFacebook Timeline: Here\u2019s What It Looks Like [VIDEO] \nFacebook Open Graph Seeks to Deliver Real-Time Serendipity\nYahoo Hooks Up With Facebook for Socially Curated News\nFacebook Adds TV &amp; Movies to the Stream \nWhat Do You Think of the Facebook Changes? [OPEN THREAD] \nFacebook Reveals Major Updates at F8 [LIVE BLOG]\nFacebook Timeline Redefines User Profiles\nSpotify Comes to Facebook [PICS]\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-timeline-zuckerberg%E2%80%99s-biggest-gamble-yet/>