Last week I watched portions of Facebook’s F8 press conference and walked away very impressed with the direction the company is taking.
I’ve always believed that the biggest fear at Facebook is that the party will one day end. That users will begin to abandon the service in droves for a new service. Let’s call it MySpace syndrome.
It’s obvious to me that MySpace syndrome is something that is often discussed and studied at Facebook. There are already a large number of users that currently tolerate but dislike Facebook. Feeling unable to depart with the service because of the large amount of friends and family that are connected to it.
Last week at F8 we saw what the company is doing in hopes of making it even more difficult for you to ever pull the plug and walk away from the service.
Facebook Timeline
Your Facebook profile will soon be transformed into a timeline of your life, and for the generation that is growing up with Facebook this will create a digital history of their lives. An online and social shoebox of memories that the people at Facebook hope you will never be able to bring yourself to toss out and throw away.
I really can’t begin to say how genius a move this is. The minor Facebook users might scoff at it, but for the heavy users of Facebook the services is going to become so much more attached to their lives that ever before.
I activated Timeline on my account and it’s very well designed. Very good looking and polished. Really think it’s a very strong move from the company and more than enough to make most people forget all about Google+.
