FUTURE OF FACEBOOK OUT WITH PROFILE PAGES IN WITH THE TIMELINE

Facebook users have noticed some changes rolling out to the social site in recent days, but odds are they aren't prepared for today's biggest social shakeup. At today's F8 Developers Conference, Mark Zuckerberg took the stage (after look-alike Andy Samberg left it) to announce a wide swath of changes that will seek to keep the six year-old social network thriving — and growing.
Foremost among the announcements is the news that the humble profile page is getting a much-needed makeover — one that could steamroll Google+ and Twitter alike: the Timeline. Mashable has called the new feature the "biggest risk since launching the social network in 2004." The Next Web calls the death of the profile page a "bit of a shock" and notes that the "massive makeover might just be a bit too much," especially for less tech-savvy users.
Sweeping changes
Facebook's new direction has a bit of a dual personality. At the dawning of the News Feed, Facebook loosed our status updates into the wild. While we once visited each other's profile pages to trade messages and check in on friends (or acquaintances of interest, for better or worse), the News Feed has since eclipsed our personal pages when it comes to connecting on the world's biggest social network. With today's announcement of the Timeline and the Ticker, Facebook will seek to weave together these two modes into a richer, more immersive social experience than ever.

The new Ticker will keep you up to date
Two kinds of sharing
The Ticker will handle the Twitter-like real-time updates, which Zuckerberg referred to as our "lightweight" social activity. Recognizing that these micro-updates (the contents of your sandwich or your Words With Friends score, for example) often clog up our profile pages, Facebook is opting to siphon them off into a kind of miniature Twitter which live in a righthand sidebar. The distinction may just seem like housecleaning, but putting these tweet-esque updates on the periphery could mean a return to Facebook's roots — but a far more refined one.
Historically, Facebook has faced criticism for its opaque and often convoluted privacy policies. It may have taken the looming threat of Google+ on its turf to light a fire under the social giant, but Facebook is handing users the reins in a big way. In a series of updates that began popping up last month, the company is moving toward a model of selective sharing: rather than mass broadcasts, you can choose who you share with — because your great aunt doesn't necessarily need to know what happened after the fifth drink at Happy Hour, does she?
Choose the story you tell
Now, not only can we share selectively with greater ease than ever, but we can choose what story we want to tell. Facebook's new Timeline feature looks to invigorate the lackluster, cluttered profile pages we've been slogging through for the past few years, replacing them with a dynamic, customizable portrait of our living histories — as told through Facebook of course. While remembering just howmuch information Facebook has stored over the years will prove unsettling to some, by curating our own past experiences (or their digital footprints, at least), we can better represent ourselves on the social network. In the Timeline, you can choose to star an event, which will give it more real estate on your profile page — or you can hide it entirely with the click of a button.