Profound change for Facebook set to lock in users

WASHINGTON: Facebook on Friday begins rolling out its biggest ever shake-up, in a move observers say will not only profoundly alter how its 800 million users interact with the site, but will keep them coming back for decades to come.


The new “Timeline,” revealed last week by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will also likely shock some users, notorious for backlashes in recent years over even small adjustments to the site, let alone a complete re-think of how their lives are presented to the world.But when they see their lives laid out before them in a neat, single page, they will realize Facebook has “unleashed something so remarkable that you didn’t even recognize it at first: A meaningful social network,” he wrote.


Observers saw a clear challenge to ubiquitous search giant Google, as 27-year-old Zuckerberg explained that the site he launched from his Harvard dormitory room in 2004 sought to be a central hub for the Internet.Timeline is the story of your life,” the young CEO announced last week with a barely contained sense of glee.


Yet apart from a relatively small number of industry geeks who followed the Zuckerberg announcement last week, the vast majority of 800 million users have little idea of the extent of the changes afoot the next time they log on.