Whatever happened to Timeline?

Back in September, Mark Faceberg Zuckerberg announced to the world that Facebook was no longer just about your mundane food, music, and pseudo-philosophical insights, Facebook was going to help you rewrite and share your life with Timeline.

Timeline in theory would not just be about what you and your highschool/college buddies have been up to, no Facebook wants to be the book to your entire life’s story. You would be able to re-share all your exploits, past loves, and annoying adorable baby pictures for your friends to be able to go back to and relive those times. At Facebook’s f8 conference, Zuckerberg assured the press and developers that Timeline and the dev feature, “Open Graph” tools, would be rolled out “over the next few weeks”; nearly two months later there has been no sign of a wide release from the Facebook.

It seems that this time around Facebook may have promised something it 1. was either unable to deliver or 2. can no longer deliver. As All Things D suggests, Facebook has since been confronted with a myriad of problems both internal and external; such a large site update or change may prove to in direct conflict with their most recent legal troubles.

Just recently, Facebook settle with the FTC and has been made to promised to not retroactively change user’s privacy preferences. A move that would make a large scale roll out of Open Graph tools to developers nearly impossible. It is a hindrance that is looking like a lost cause to many potential developers.

Also, rumors are starting to circulate that internal bickering about the implementation of Timelines is causing the delays and developer headaches. It could very well be possible that what we’ve been shown and what we’ll end up with may not mesh. There’s also concern over how Timelines can be co-opted into mobile versions of Facebook (both at launch and in future updates).

Either way there’s a lot of questions with very few answers coming from the Facebook camp. Are you using Timelines, eager to try it out or could really care less? Let us know.

UPDATE:

Apparently The Verge is reporting that Facebook has started rolling out Timeline on a larger scale beginning today (Dec. 7th). It appears that it’s rolling out in smaller markets, like New Zealand, but folks have already begun seeing invites for the new layout. Soon our past will be that much easier to exploit expose share!

Thanks to everyone for The Verge tip.

Source: All Things D