Facebook’s Timeline followed years of conversation

"Our children and our children’s children can look back and have such a richer understanding than we do now," Lessin said. "I think that undeniably is going to happen."

It is a highly visual product, featuring photographs and interactive maps plus text, intended to make social media a thing of the past as well as the present. It is collaborative because it includes things that friends post on their Wall, as well as a record of the applications they use, such as the songs they listen to on the music service Spotify.

"We’re trying to make more than 750 million people’s data look beautiful, and tell an interesting story to them and to their friends," said Felton, describing his aspirations for Timeline. Felton is co-founder with Ryan Case of Daytum, a startup Facebook bought in April that created tools to communicate personal statistics.

By Mike Swift

[email protected]

Full Story: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_19358883