timeline

You've probably noticed, or read, by now that Twitter and Instagram aren't really getting along all that well. Twitter originally blocked Instagram users' access to their Twitter friends. Then last week Instagram began disabling its integration with Twitter Cards, completely removing support as of yesterday.

Now, when you or someone you follow sends an Instagram photo to Twitter, you'll only see a link to the photo (as you can see in the screenshot above). In the past, you'd see the entire photo directly in your Twitter timeline when using any official Twitter app or the Web … Read more

Facebook is testing out a new, slimmer Timeline layout featuring a single column of posts instead of the current double column. The test layout keeps the boxes that highlight friends and activities to the right.

The social network is currently rolling out the test, first noticed by Inside Facebook, to a small number of users.

"This is a new design Facebook is testing with a small percentage of people to make navigating timeline even easier," a Facebook spokeswoman told CNET.

When Timeline was first introduced, it prompted mixed reviews from users, with some hating the change. But really, … Read more

We've seen this script so many times already.

A rumor gets started about a Facebook privacy breach. It matters little whether the story turns out to be true because we're hooked on the stylized drama guaranteed to follow: Before long, all kinds of folks are running around as if their hair's on fire, screaming about how Mark Zuckerberg is a rat fink who betrayed his oath to protect their online identities. Then old farts like me, who still remember what it was like when our world was not an open book, chime in with thumb-suckers decrying what'… Read more

A Facebook Timeline feature that rounds up old posts has people crying privacy violations, but Facebook says it's just a part of its ongoing Timeline roll-out.

A French newspaper reported today that users were seeing private messages from past years posted to their Timelines. The messages were curated in a box labeled "Friends," which was created to display all the wall posts from each year.

Media reports and user panic ensued, but Facebook swears no private messages were published.

Facebook said this is a new feature that was incorporated into Timeline, but the viewable messages are not … Read more

Twitter today announced the launch of a real-time tool that allows Web site operators to embed interactive Twitter timelines on their Web pages.

"Today we're bringing Twitter and the Web closer together by launching new real-time tools for Web site developers," Twitter developer advocate Sylvain Carle wrote in a blog post today. "With our new embedded timelines, you can place any public timeline on your Web site, connecting your readers with the Tweets that you and others create on Twitter."

The way the tool works is that it lets users embed a stream of tweets … Read more

As election season heats up, politics are increasingly taking center stage in Facebook discussions -- and now that's going to step up even another notch. The social network and CNN launched their "I'm Voting" app today.

Announced last month, the app lets users commit to voting while endorsing specific candidates and issues. The commitments are displayed on users' timelines, news feeds, and real-time tickers. This way (for better or for worse) users can show all of their friends who they are voting for and how they feel about certain issues -- like immigration, health care, and … Read more

Facebook has made a lot of changes over the past couple of years. We've seen new features get added, while others died off. We've seen new games get added and take over most of our Timelines. And we've also seen Facebook pick settings for us that we can't seem to change by default because the options just aren't there.

Well, enough of that.

If you're like me, you find keeping track of family and friends on Facebook much easier when the posts are in chronological order. Facebook obviously disagrees because at some point after … Read more

Facebook heavyweight Ben Blumenfeld is stepping down from the social network, according to a blog post he wrote today. Blumenfeld was the company's design manager and had been at Facebook since 2007. He is leaving to co-direct the Designer Fund.

This news comes as three high-level managers and directors left the company last week, including the director of platform partnerships Ethan Beard, platform marketing director Katie Mitic, and mobile platform marketing manager Jonathan Matus.

Blumenfeld was tasked with making Facebook's platform more accessible. "We were building great products, but not doing a great job of guiding people … Read more

It's time to clean the skeletons out of your online closet. Facebook is set to force Timeline, its newish profile page, on its 955 million users this "fall."

Facebook's Timeline feature -- if you haven't already experienced it -- will likely drag up a lot of your virtual past that you thought you'd left behind years ago. It features a single timeline-like layout in which various stories, life events, comments, Wall posts, and other content branch out from a single vertical trunk. You can even scroll back to the time you were born and … Read more