Facebook's Timeline Redesign: Listening, Watching Your 'Likes'
After getting a peek at a test page for Facebook's Timeline redesign yesterday, we've discovered a few more hidden clues as to what may be on the horizon for Facebook users.
Until now, Facebook's built-in subsections (the ones you get without having installed any apps) have included Photos, Friends, Likes, Notes, Map and Events. Now it appears that Movies, Music, Books and TV Shows will be joining the lineup. (Some of those might show up for you now, but only if you have certain apps that fit in those categories.)
For the past few years, Facebook has displayed your music, movie and television "likes" on a central page that gathers all "liked" items. Clicking into any "liked" item would bring you to that band, film or show's Facebook page. In its test, it does not appear that Facebook is not getting rid of that amassed "like" page, but instead will be duplicating its presence and dividing its content into separate sections. These sections now appear on the right hand column of the timeline. The left side is for your status updates or friends' posts.
Something else is changed too. A prompt to access MySpace's music listening app popped up when we clicked into the Music section and selected "Britney Spears." Clicking another artist prompted a Spotify app to pop up. It's our guess that the different services being prompted for different artists are products of whatever online streaming deals the artists have at the moment for their content. It's important to note that the ABC News account on which Facebook's test appeared did not have the MySpace Music or Spotify apps.
While we were able to add the Music collection, we weren't able to add the TV and Movies collections to the Timeline. It's unclear if, when you add those, you will be able taken to apps to watch those TV shows or movies.
This could be the way Facebook popularizes streaming media in its Timeline, something it has yet to fully realize just yet. As of now, you may not often peruse the long lists of movies, TV shows and various media you have "liked," but if these sections of Facebook became content hubs that already have your favorite media from every medium available to watch at a click, it would drive more interaction. Don't know what to watch on a Saturday night? Visit your friends' page and click into their favorite show list to start watching what your friends are watching.
Yesterday, Facebook confirmed to ABC News that it was testing new Timeline designs with a limited number of users. Facebook similarly confirmed to ABC that it is working on new ways to present app information. "We are always testing new ways of surfacing app stories to people on their timeline and in News Feed," a Facebook spokesperson told ABC News. "We have no further details to share at this time."