Timeline proves Zuckerberg is king of social networking

When I was 14 years old, I found a green notebook in my dad’s bedside drawer. I remember it was green because there was another notebook of the exact same size and shape that was yellow. I picked up the green one and started thumbing through it. It caught my eye first because it was nearest to the top of the drawer and it had my name on the cover.

I randomly flipped to a page about a quarter of the way in and began reading. “Justin came in to our bedroom this morning and sat by Cloene’s (that’s my mom) side of the bed. I’m not sure how long he was there unbeknownst to us before he began trying to wake us up. He got really close to Cloene’s side of the bed and started saying ‘Mommy. Mommy.”

“It was a whisper at first, but eventually he switched to a regular voice and just continued to get louder. I looked at the clock. It was 6 a.m. on the dot. ‘What, honey?’ I heard come from the other side of the bed. Then Justin leaned in close, right in front of her face, put his hands on her cheeks and said ‘Mommy. I need my breakfast. Now!”

The green notebook was full of stories like that from my childhood. The yellow one full of stories about my sister. My dad kept a journal like that for both of us. We had photo albums and home movies too. But this was his way to make sure my parents remembered the stories behind the photos and videos someday. Stories they would eventually share with us and that we would have records of to share with our families someday.

I’ve shared numerous stories from that green notebook with my wife, Maggie. Just the other day, I reminded her to make sure we ask my parents for it soon so we have a copy of it. I want to be able to show it to our kids someday.

I know I’m not the only person with a green notebook. Mark Zuckerberg knows it too. And he’s smart enough to put all of our green notebooks to work for Facebook. That was obvious Thursday when he unveiled Timeline to the world at Facebook’s F8 conference in San Francisco.

Zuckerberg’s presentation was one Alanis Morisette would have called ironic, don’t you think? After Zuck and Andy Samberg kicked things off with a skit that couldn’t be called anything but socially awkward, Zuckerberg stepped back into his element to show us all how wicked smart he is when it comes to understanding our social behavior and tendencies.

The best definition I have heard of Timeline is a digital scrapbook. That’s exactly what it is…a year-by-year archive of our lives within Facebook. Zuckerberg and friends have taken something that was important to us long before Facebook was around — memories — and provided structure around them so they’ll be easily accessible for us today, tomorrow and when we want to share them with our kids.

Facebook lost 6 million users in May. And while Google+ is still way behind Facebook when it comes to social networking, Zuck and team did what any good team does when they’re ahead in a game. They didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal. If Facebook becomes the home for your memories and moments, why would you every get rid of your account. The answer is simple. You wouldn’t.

As we watched the release of Timeline Thursday at our office, one of my colleagues looked around and said “Why would I ever go back and upload photos for the years before I was on Facebook?” Soon after, another colleague said: “Because your friends will do it and you’ll want to do it too.”

Isn’t that the genius of what Zuckerberg had done here with Timeline? He’s taken a behavior most of us already do or want to do, because someone else in our lives did it for us, and he’s made it an integral part of Facebook.

Timeline is the new green notebook. And we’ve all got stories to write in it.

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