Facebook has undergone its biggest redesign yet, as the social network repositions itself as a one-stop entertainment hub where users can watch films and TV, read books and news and listen to music on the same platform.
The revamp, set to roll out over the next few weeks, will see user profiles replaced with an audio visual timeline of their life.
In addition, the site’s application platform has been redesigned to allow users to share what they are consuming on streaming music services such as Spotify, and the movie rental site Netflix.
News sites, including the Guardian and Independent newspapers, are also included in the initial roll out.
Depending on privacy settings, users will be able to see what friends are doing – for example, playing a song – then listen-in themselves.
The changes reflect Facebook’s attempt to keep users engaged on the site, rather than accessing content from other parts of the Internet, boosting ad revenues in the process.
The updates were revealed at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference in San Fransisco, where founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted to create “real time serendipity”.
Zuckerberg added: “Millions of people curate stories of their lives on Facebook every day and have no way to share them once they fall off your profile page … we have been working on ‘timeline’ all year … it’s the story of your life and completely new way to express yourself. It has three pieces: all your stories, your apps and a new way to express who you are.”
Zuckerberg said he wanted people to be able to share “their entire lives” on Facebook and have “total control” over how their content appeared online.
Using his own profile to demonstrate the new timeline, Mr Zuckerberg showed photos of himself as a baby which he has inserted into the new profile page which is organised by years.
Facebook said that users would only be able to do as much on the site as its media partners allowed in each country, so free music sharing through streaming apps would only work where that service was already available outside Facebook.
The revamp comes just a day after Google’s own social network ‘Google+’ went public, with a raft of new features, including video hangouts, shared TV shows, and live collaborative document editing.
Google+ has someway to go before it poses a serious threat to Facebook. It currently 25 million users a month joining the limited field trial. Facebook, by way of contrast, has around 750 million users.
Just this week, Facebook created a new internet record becoming the first social networking site to attract half a billion people during one day.
View a video ad below showing the new Facebook site in action:
