Facebook Is Fixing The Thing You Hate Most About Your Profile


Timeline is the most beautiful thing to happen to Facebook, but it’s not without its detractors. Complaint numero uno: the double-column layout is confusing, causing users to panic, unable to discern when events in their lives happened. Why are these two things next to each other? Which happened first? Where am I? Who am I? Your temporal nightmare may soon be over.

According to a report by InsideFacebook, the social network is testing out a new, single-column view, which displays Timeline events in a strictly vertical order. No more having to move your eyeballs slightly from side to side. Newer things are higher, older things are lower. This will be easier to follow, but also wastes a lot of space, making Timeline half as wide as it is now. It’s a tradeoff — and maybe it’ll be an optional layout, who knows! — but it will certainly appease many who still haven’t acclimated to design.

Facebook confirmed that it’s testing the skinny Timeline with a small sliver of users. [InsideFacebook]

Update: Giz reader Mike is one of the chosen few:

I like what they’re doing on the first couple screens-worth of content with the timeline posts on the left side and the friends, likes, photos, events, etc on the right side, but once you get beyond those it’s kind of awkward to have half of your screen real estate just blank.

Sounds about right.


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.