We’ve been talking about it for months, and now it’s finally here. Today, Facebook announced the wide rollout of its one-column Timeline redesign.
The new layout now puts an individual’s posts and life events on the right and his or her About information and app activity on the left. Although the design seems to be limited to Facebook Profiles, this is actually good news for brands as well.
Now, the revamped About page gives members more options to highlight their favorite movies, books, and music, as well as other stories they’ve shared through Open Graph apps. Consumers are able to choose which apps and content appear on their page and the order in which they’re displayed.
Additionally, if someone sees a book on a friend’s Timeline, he or she could hover over it, click on the plus icon, and choose to add it to his or her “Read” or “Want to read” lists. That action could then be shared out to the individual’s friends, continuing the awareness cycle.
With more visual representation and better control over what’s shown, this could encourage members to add more “intent-based” information. Not only is this helpful for discovery, but it could also be useful in ad targeting. It blends nicely with Facebook’s News Feed updates, which show off apps and app-related actions more prominently.
For now, the redesign is limited to Profiles and won’t actually affect Pages. Members can expect to see the changes roll out over the coming weeks.
[Via: Inside Facebook, Image credit: Coletivo Mambembe]