What is Facebook ‘Timeline’?

It seems every time Facebook changes something, there a sense of hysteria online. Come on folks, it's not all that bad, considering you're using a free service.

In fact, I think I like it. It did take a week or two of getting used to, but seems to make a lot more sense now. (And before you get all 'privacy-corcerned' on me, just remember that there is no new info about you available to strangers or friends. They can see the same things they saw before, 'Timeline' just makes it a little easier to go look at your past.)

Beano's Facebook page

The latest innovation on Facebook is 'Timeline'. What exactly does that mean?

Timeline is essentially a scrapbook of your whole life on Facebook, compared with a snapshot of you today found on Facebook's traditional profile page. Once activated, Timeline replaces the current profile.
Timeline doesn't expose anything that wasn't available for sharing in the past. Many of those older posts had always been available. People could get to them by continually hitting "Older Posts," although most wouldn't have bothered. Timeline allows people to jump to the older material more quickly.
Timeline also doesn't necessarily reflect the fact that your circle of friends has likely expanded in recent years. A party photo you posted in 2008 to a small group of friends would be more visible to relatives, bosses and others you may have added as friends since then.
You'll have a week to curate the Timeline by moving stuff around, hiding photos or featuring them more prominently on your page.