Since Google+ made its debut June 28, 2011, there has been a windstorm of posts and articles on the internet about whether Facebook has finally met a worthy opponent. However, at the rate Facebook is evolving, Google+ may have to implement a hurry-up offense just to contend – probably why the once invitation-only platform is public after only three months.
New Additions to the Playbook
Most likely, you noticed some pretty significant changes the last time you logged into your Facebook account, some of which Facebook has received some intense criticism for. Once you get past the initial shock of your news feed being reorganized, it’s easy to see how the updates present many new options to customize what information you receive. Let’s take a look at some of the recent changes and how you can utilize them to enhance your Facebook experience.
Top/Recent Stories: Depending on how often you log into Facebook, you will see either “top” or “recent” stories at the beginning of your news feed. Recent stories act just like your current news feed and will appear at the beginning of your feed if you visit Facebook frequently throughout the day. The top stories highlight updates and activity that received a lot of interaction while you were away and are labeled using a blue flag in the upper left-hand corner of the post. You can tweak what shows up by flagging recent stories you like as top stories (option appears when you hover over the upper left-hand corner) to tell Facebook to include that type of post in your top stories. You can also unflag posts currently labeled as top stories to tell Facebook what you don’t want included.
News Ticker: The ticker in the upper right-hand corner functions as a real-time news feed of everything your friends are currently doing. You can hover over an item to enlarge it and read more or directly comment on statuses and photos without ever leaving your news feed. The gray bar between the ticker and your online friends can be dragged up or down to view more of the section you prefer. Don’t want the ticker? Unfortunately, you can only minimize it using a small icon in the lower right-hand corner. This will shrink it to a much smaller area in the upper right-hand corner of the column next to your news feed.
Lists: Similar to Google+’s circles, you can now easily group your friends into list and send status updates to specific people and lists versus everyone that’s your friend on Facebook. This is a great way to keep from sharing information with people that wouldn’t benefit from it and avoiding an awkward moment with your mom over a status update she didn’t agree with! To share updates with multiple lists, simply use the “Custom” option when choosing who you want to to see that particular activity.
Subscriptions: Let’s face it, all Facebook relationships aren’t created equal! Hovering over a person’s name will now give you the option to subscribe to what types of updates you want to receive about them and whether you want all of their updates, most of their updates or just the important moments of life.
Video Chat: Not as new as the other features, but probably underutilized, is the ability to video chat. Pressing the video icon will do a one-time plugin installation to your browser that enables you to call your friends and video chat with them through Facebook. There aren’t really any added features once you initiate the chat like in Google+’s hang outs, but it’s neat to have the option to chat face-to-face without leaving Facebook. If they don’t answer when you call, you can leave them a video message!
Introducing Timeline
Facebook has one more major update on the horizon that has the potential to change the way you use the social network. In the near future (rumored to be as early as September 29), they will reveal “Timeline,” the new user profile. In the paraphrased words of Mark Zuckerman, if the original Facebook profile provided content for the first five minutes of a conversation, and the current profile provides content for the next 15, then Timeline provides content for the next few hours of getting to know someone. Have you ever wondered what happens to all of your old status updates, posts and comment streams after they fall off the bottom of your wall? Well, Timeline has taken the moments that meant the most to you, summarized them and grouped them by year to create a chronological depiction of who you are!
Features include:
– New custom verbs such as “cook,” “watch,” “read” and “listen” to describe what you are currently doing.
– Lifestyle applications to share everything from music, videos and television shows to fitness tips and favorite recipes.
– Spotify integration that enables your friends to listen to your favorite songs with you, add your songs to their play lists and leave comments on new releases.
– And more!
Early adopters wishing to get a head-start on the rest of the Facebook universe can enable the new profile now, but it will only be visible to other users that have done the same.
Is this a game changer?
The big question is whether Facebook’s new features will give it enough edge over Google+ to keep the huge footprint its built in the social media landscape. My prediction (and that of my brilliant colleague, Kristen Burke)? Google+ will follow in the steps of Twitter and create its own niche for social use. We see it becoming a virtual productivity tool for social collaboration and project management due to its seamless integration with the Google platform rather than a social network.
Think about it. You could easily create a circle for your project team at school or work for sharing pertinent information. Then schedule a virtual hangout to coordinate group meetings from anywhere in the world. And, during the hangout, team members can share screens and Google Docs to allow for instant collaboration. The possibilities are endless. But, that’s another blog post in itself.
Ultimately, I believe Facebook will take the win with this one!