More changes for Facebook

PROMOTION: Zuckerberg is hoping for more registered users

MARK Zuckerberg, the lynchpin of social networking giant Facebook has announced a sweeping set of changes to his powerful website.  However, it has received a mixed response from regular users of the site.  Under pressure from the public launch of Google+ this week, Zuckerberg has confirmed a new profile will be launched called ‘Timeline,’ in the next few weeks.  Already, new changes made this week have been criticised as too ‘compact’ and ‘confusing.’

     At a conference in San Francisco yesterday, Zuckerberg gave a speech about the changes and showed a video of how ‘Timeline’ will work.  He said; “The first thing you will notice is that it is a lot more visual.  There will still be a section for news stories and your wall page will just look a lot nicer.  All your stories, all your apps, it’s a new way to express your life.”

     ‘Timeline’ will allow users of the site to plot out their lives back to when they were born, through photos and events.  Users will also be able to share photos, videos and links without having to click the popular ‘like’ button. 

      Google+ went public on Wednesday and is hoping to capitalise on those Facebook regulars who are bound to react with disapproval at another rafting set of changes.  25million users worldwide have already been attracted to Google+ via invitation and it will be interesting to see how they can do in an area that Facebook and Twitter have dismantled the other competition in recent years.

     As for Facebook, the evolution continues. . . 

A brief video of how ‘Timeline’ will work is shown here from YouTube.

Wikipedia celebrates its 10th birthday

THE free online encyclopaedia Wikipedia celebrated its tenth birthday at the weekend.  Launched by Jimmy Wales in San Francisco in 2001, Wikipedia has given the general public a new way to share and collect information, even if it still has its doubters as a valid and creditable source of facts. 

CELEBRATION: Wikipedia is ten not out

Currently, Wikipedia is available in eight different languages, including German, Italian and Spanish.  There is no doubt that its presence on our internet has changed the face of the World Wide Web, alongside the likes of Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.  The site now carries 17million articles in English, adding just over 1,000 new entries a day.

Often derided for allowing almost anyone to edit its pages, Wales has always claimed that this alone proves that its facts are completely true.  Many seem to agree with this argument, and with Wikipedia now the fifth most browsed site on the Internet, it’s hard not to disagree.  Wikipedia has also taken some flak in the past for the failing of academic studies from some students.  Traditional homework does seem to be a thing of the past, but in an interview with Jon Snow last Wednesday for Channel 4 News, Wales defended the allegation of homework shortcomings; “My argument is that teachers also have access to Wikipedia, and once they find out that a student has cut and pasted work, they will get an F.”  “My view is that Wikipedia should be as high quality as we can make it and that necessarily involves an open discussion/debate of people picking over detail as great as possible.” 

In the interview, Wales also confirmed that Wikipedia will always remain user-friendly and user-based, although they might tighten their policies when it comes to editing biographies of famous people.  Wikipedia intents to keep it status as a non-profit organisation so will not use advertising to promote its site. 

Congratulations Wikipedia, I predict this Internet phenomena, no matter the criticism it draws will go from strength to strength.