As if Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) wasn’t integrated in your life enough, your relationship with your profile just keeps getting cozier. Today Facebook began officially rolling out its redesigned timeline to select users, revealing more customization options on the About page — like the ability to differentiate between movies you’ve watched and movies you want to watch — among other improvements. Meanwhile, after a long battle in the courts of Washington, D.C., Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) will become more integrated with Facebook than ever before.
Though Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s new timeline has been tested in other countries, today is the first day of the official rollout. The upgrades will come gradually, in waves, to random users around the globe. As the launch begins, we’ll get a better look at the details of the new options. The first major changes begin with your profile.
Redesigned sections give you the ability to list your favorite movies, music, TV shows, and books right alongside your photos and friends (your friends no longer have to visit your About page to get to these sections). These sections are all conveniently placed on the left, with all posts on the right side of your timeline.
Souce: Facebook press release.
Plus, now you can even differentiate between what you’ve read versus what you want to read or what you’ve watched versus what you want to watch.
Source: Facebook press release.
Third-party apps from the likes of Flixster and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) will automate processes the same way they do for their customers if users choose to integrate their pages with their apps.
This is a great breakthrough for Netflix, after a long legal battle prevented it from sharing users’ viewing data on Facebook. Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX)’s access to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s more than 1 billion users is an enormous opportunity.
You can add other apps to your timeline as well — all at your discretion. In the press release, Facebook gives the example of including your Instagram photo stream.
The changes look nice. But the story here is that there is far more to this new timeline than a cleaner look — which seems to be the way Facebook is promoting it. There’s no doubt that Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) is giving members far greater control in an attempt to make the platform “stickier” and get more specific data from its members while it’s at it. This means more useful data for even more targeted advertising.
Any change that makes the platform more indispensable to users and more useful for advertisers is great for investors. In that case, I’d like to congratulate Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shareholders; your business just became even more valuable.
Stay tuned here at Fool.com as I continue to cover the rollout.
The article Facebook Rolls Out New Timeline and Deepens Netflix Integration originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Daniel Sparks.
Fool contributor Daniel Sparks has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Facebook and Netflix.
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