Facebook unveils new look and feel (photos)

CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicks off the company's F8 developers' conference today by introducing a revamped profile page called Timeline, as well as changes to the Open Graph apps platform that make it easier for users to share media. Here's a photo recap.

CNET News staff

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CNET News staff

Sept. 22, 2011 12:58 p.m. PT

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Timeline introduced

CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicks off the company's F8 developers' conference today by introducing a revamped profile page called Timeline, as well as changes to Facebook's Open Graph apps platform that make it easier for users to share media.

A Timeline, Zuckerberg says, is "the story of your life," significantly altering the way users' information is shown on Facebook, and presenting "all your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are....It's a way to tell all the important stories from your life on a single page." Shown here is Zuckerberg's own Timeline, including his dog "Beast."

Click on for a photo recap of Zuckerberg's presentation. Or click here for a summary post of what was announced.

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Timeline mobile

Zuckerberg shows off how Facebook's new Timeline looks on a mobile device.

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Facebook Ticker

Zuckerberg introduces Ticker, the next version of Facebook's Open Graph app platform. Ticker is aimed at giving users a way to express "lightweight" actions, thoughts, interests, and happenings, he says.

Open Graph and Ticker will be rolled out slowly, giving developers a chance to create apps for Timeline. However, Zuckerberg says elements of Open Graph that make discovering of media content like music, movies, TV, and news will be available immediately.

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Andy Samberg

The keynote starts with "Saturday Night Live" comedian Andy Samberg introducing himself as Zuckerberg and showing off the newest Facebook feature, "the Slow Poke." The real Zuckerberg takes over about five minutes later.

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Facebook circa 2004

Zuckerberg shows a slide of the Facebook profile page circa 2004, when there was no wall or photos section.

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Ticker

Zuckerberg says that Ticker helps keep minor things out of your friends' feeds, such as liking a song.

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Ek and Zuckerberg

Zuckerberg says the future of music shouldn't be about blocking songs you have bought. It should be about helping you discover new music through your friends via the Open Graph.

Then he calls up Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to talk about what his company has done with the app platform to make it easier to share and discover.

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Spotify's Daniel Ek

"We're bringing people back to pay for music again," Spotify's Ek says.

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Reed Hastings

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings is also called up to talk about how the activity stream can lead to video discovery on services such as his.

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Facebook CTO Bret Taylor

Facebook CTO Bret Taylor says the main goal for Open Graph was to keep things simple. Under the hood, developers need to pick out what type of app activity gets shared out and how items shared to the timeline look. Then they add the "share to timeline" button. And that's it, he says.

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Chris Cox

Chris Cox, Facebook's VP of product management, discusses the humble beginnings of the new Timeline feature, which puts together a history of user activity. According to Cox, the company was smitten with the personal digital scrapbooking habits of Nicholas Felton, who Facebook ended up hiring to work on the project.