A survey of 2000 people was conducted to explore users feelings about the new Timelines features that are being added to Facebook.
This survey (although only targeting a minute portion of overall Facebook users) had unexpected negative results with around 56% of users who were aware of it not only disliking the new Timelines feature but also have some deep concerns about privacy.
The survey, carried out by USA Today, revealed that 26% of daily Facebook users are “very concerned” about how the new features will affect their privacy and a much higher percentage said they simply did not like the idea of everyone seeing what they had been doing online.
The figures are even higher at 35% for people who only visit the site on average once a week.
This is a blow for Facebook especially in light of recent comments made by its former president, Sean Parker who said “The threat to Facebook is that power users have gone to Twitter or Google+”.
Parker believes the reason behind so many people choosing Twitter and Google+ over Facebook is that “Facebook isn’t giving them enough ways to manage a glut of information.” This may of course be true but the new survey indicates that this may not be the only problem.
The new Timeline feature has been designed to allow users to share their histories and gives Facebook the chance to pass on more targeted information to advertisers.
87% of daily users were aware of the changes being made to Facebook and of the people surveyed only 36% of users liked them. These figures track closely to Mashable‘s poll of 3,200 users in September.
The poll stated that about 59% of users said they couldn’t be bothered to fill in their Timelines. Obviously these negative results could be due to the fact that people have not been given the chance to acquaint themselves fully with the new features and may decide at a later date that they prefer them.
What do you think? Is Timelines a great idea or a giant flop? Please let us know in the comments section below.
