Hello to everyone who held out like champs against the onset of total Timeline domination – I have some bad news for you. Come this Fall, your traditional layout will be switched to the much-loathed Timeline layout for good, whether you like it or not. After posting about the downfall in popularity for the social networking site, I’m fairly sure this mandatory switch will kick Facebook’s following while it’s down.

Facebook unrolled the Timeline layout in January, with many avid users hopping on and playing around with its features. But just as many users groaned with the idea of yet another alteration to a already user-friendly interface. The Timeline has sneaked up on many Facebook members out of nowhere – I clicked on an article posted by a friend, and then next thing I know, I am being congratulated for breaking in my new Timeline.

What was wrong with Facebook’s traditional format to begin with? Simply put, nothing. The Timeline was concocted as a chance for Facebook to cash in on more advertising revenue. The Timeline takes your activity (what you read, watch and listen to) and re-packages the material to deliver as advertisements to your friends in their feed. This raises concerns of privacy to have your personal information freely taken for marketing purposes. But the Timeline is glorified by businesses for promotional use, rather than regular members for personal use. The layout provides the history and milestones of companies, and the large Timeline cover is a great opportunity to showcase their brand.

But what is great for businesses can ultimately hurt their promotional reach if regular users are lessening their activity due to their dislike of Facebook changes. It will be harder to conduct B2C (business-to-consumer) interaction if Facebook’s membership drifts away from the site.

How do you feel about the Timeline format? Have you already converted?

[via Tecca]
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