Profound change for Facebook set to ‘lock in’ users

Facebook began rolling out its biggest ever shake-up, in a move observers say will not only profoundly alter how its 800 million users interact with the site, but will keep them coming back for decades to come.

The new Timeline, revealed by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will also likely shock some users, notorious for backlashes in recent years over even small adjustments to the site, let alone a complete re-think of how their lives are presented to the world.

Rick Marini, chief executive officer of the Facebook-focused “career network” BranchOut, marvelled in a conference call with marketers and reporters how the site had managed to build an enduring model.

“If your Timeline becomes an important part of your life – the diary of your life – Facebook may have just locked people in for the next 20 years,” Mr Marini said. If Facebook is “where all of this happens, all your pictures, all your video, everything you’ve ever done,” he added, “you’re never going to leave”.

Mr Zuckerberg said his team’s main aim was “to design a place that feels like your home,” prompting Forrester analyst Sean Corcoran to note that Facebook was “positioning itself as not just your social graph online, but your life online”.

Pete Cashmore, founder of influential tech blog Mashable, this week anticipated the expected response from users in an article for CNN.com under the blunt headline: “You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook.”

The move, Mr Cashmore said, would be likely jarring at first for millions of people who visit the site every day. But when they see their lives laid out before them in a neat, single page, they will realise Facebook has “unleashed something so remarkable that you didn’t even recognise it at first: A meaningful social network,” he wrote.