No more anonymous 'defriending': New Facebook feature will allow users to know who doesn't like them

By Daily Mail Reporter

Last updated at 1:04 PM on 25th September 2011

With a slew of cosmetic changes and tweaks, Facebook users could be forgiven for getting a little frustrated over the last few days.
But the social network's new Timeline feature looks set to really enrage users after it emerged the ability to anonymously 'defriend' people will become a thing of the past.
Using the new feature, which is set to be rolled out in the near future, users will be able to see all their entire Facebook history - including their shifting friends lists.

Busted: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers a keynote during the Facebook f8 Developer Conference at the San Francisco Design Center

Along with every picture, message and app used, Timeline will allow people to see which of your previous 'friends' at somepoint decided to end the relationship.

WHAT IS TIMELINE

The new timeline feature is reminiscent of an online scrapbook, with the most important photos, text, music and video that users have shared or will share on Facebook over the years.

The timeline can go back to include years before Facebook even existed, so users can add photos and events from, say 1995 when they got married or 1970 when they were born.
It is intended to replace the current layout, but critics have said it may alienate some of the 'older' Facebook generation.
The redesigned pages have a more magazine-like photo-heavy feel, with a large 'cover photo' at the top of the page .
On the right of the page there will be a timeline that breaks down all posts from a person's time on Facebook and allows viewers to jump back to people's earliest posts with a break down month-by-month.
For the first time, the site will allow you to add photos and content from before Facebook existed in a new 'Way Back' section.

Zuckerberg said the new profile page had been designed so that, 'you can tell the whole story of your life on a single page'.

Speaking to BuzzFeed, community manager at Mashable Meghan Peters said: 'There is a way where you can go in to a certain point in time and basically, if you look at your friends tab, maybe from three years ago, and you see the ‘Add Friend’ button from someone in that list, that will basically tell you that they have defriended you since you became their friend.

'I think that people will definitely be upset by it.

More...

• More than 4 MILLION people have access to the U.S governments classified information
• Biggest-ever Facebook overhaul wins over users with 'free' films, music and books

'I mean, it always hurts to know that someone isn’t your friend anymore.'

The Facebook is trying to evolve from an Internet hangout where people swing by to share tidbits, links and photos to a homestead decorated with the memories, dreams and diversions of its 800 million users.

In what may be the boldest step yet in the company's seven-year history, Facebook is redesigning its users' profile pages to create what CEO Mark Zuckerberg says is a 'new way to express who you are.'

It is betting that despite early grumblings, its vast audience will become even more attached to a website that keeps pushing the envelope.
To that effect, it is introducing new ways for people to connect with friends, brands and games while also sharing details about their lives from the mundane to the intimate.

'If you look at Facebook's history, obviously they are not afraid of making change,' said Sean Corcoran, an analyst with Forrester Research.

History: Along with every picture, message and app used, Timeline will allow people to see which of your previous 'friends' at some point decided to end the relationship

'They have done a lot of big changes in the past and people have gotten upset. But most of the time Facebook has been right.'

Zuckerberg introduced the Facebook 'timeline' along with new entertainment and media company partnerships on Thursday in San Francisco, at the annual 'f8' conference attended by about 2,000 entrepreneurs, developers and journalists.

The event was also being broadcast to, at one point, more than 100,000 online viewers.

The changes seek to transform how and how much people share things online, just as Facebook has been doing since its scrappy start as a college-only network.

The overhaul also presents a new challenge for Google Inc., which has been scrambling to catch up with the launch of its own a social network, Google Plus, three months ago.

The timeline, which will eventually replace users' current profile pages, is reminiscent of an online scrapbook filled with the most important photos and text that they have shared on Facebook over the years.

It's where people express their real selves and merge their online and offline lives even more than they are doing now.

Sphere: Related Content