CNN set off a firestorm of speculation when it reported Friday that Facebook had acquired Gowalla, the location-based check-in mobile app similar to Foursquare.

Facebook declined to comment, but Josh Williams, Gowalla founder and CEO did not deny the deal in an email to AllThingsD on Sunday, writing, “The ink on the deal is not dry, so our holding pattern is that we do not comment on rumours and speculation. I have another email penned that was ready to send you today, assuming you would get this news before the story was officially released. But now it is all over Twitter, so you have likely heard. A longer email will be sent soon.”

Turns out, as Business Insider reports and a Gowalla blog post confirms, that the Gowalla team is indeed joining Facebook — but not the brand itself, which will be killed off in order to supercharge the timeline feature on Facebook, whose own Facebook Places check-in function launched last year but never took off.Continue reading...

When Facebook announced Timeline, its new design to expand the user profile into an interactive archive, on Sept. 22nd, it set Facebook users (individuals and companies alike) abuzz with what the implications might be.

As Interbrand's Nora Geiss comments, "every Facebook user will be more of a souped-up, super specific, hyper-textural psychographic profile than ever before. This will create better ways for brands to provide customer-centric products and services to the people who actually want them." Already, smart brands such as Volkswagen are getting a jump by offering branded photos (touting the new Beetle, at top) that users can display, blog-style, at the top of their user profile pages to declare their love for the brand. 

Curating online exhibits so consumers can engage with high-profile brands and marketing campaigns via Facebook’s Timeline is ideally suited “for generating intimate engagement with brands,” says the Ayzenberg Group.

With Timeline, Ayzenberg sees a huge opportunity for turnkey engagement that goes beyond product/brand conversations to storytelling, behind-the-scenes access and creating buzz around campaigns as they’re running and/or prior to launch.Continue reading...

While Facebook users are contemplating what the new Timeline feature means for their profile pages (how much 'curating' they're expected to do, not to mention privacy concerns), brands are also mulling the latest 'New Facebook.'

Facebook’s big unveiling last week of its new user interface relies heavily on “social apps” to put the storytelling and narrative into user profiles, with Mark Zuckerberg touting "Express who you are through all the things you do—the music you love, the recipes you enjoy, the runs you take and more."

He might as well have added, "and the brands you love," because Facebook is opening the door for brand marketers and businesses to reach its user base like never before.Continue reading...

Today at Facebook’s f8 developers conference, an upbeat Andy Samberg Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Timeline, demonstrated in the video above. He described it as “the heart of your Facebook experience, completely rethought from the ground up. Timeline is the story of your life.”

Timelines’ three key features — "all your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are" — expand the user profile all the way back to ... well, as far as you want it to go back.

Get ready to curate your life stream and engage with friends in “real-time serendipity in a friction-less experience.” It also make the site a lot more visual — photos are now bigger, with the timeline optimized for tablets and connected devices, and it can embed apps to incorporate music and other rich media elements.

Below, watch a video demo and find out more about the changes coming to Facebook, and why.Continue reading...