Be prepared to decide whether or not you’re going to put your entire existence on Facebook. Facebook profiles will under go some major changes in the next few weeks. Today at F8 Mark Zuckerberg announced Timeline, a new version of the Facebook profile that will be rolling out in the next few weeks. Think of Timeline as the story of your life year by year.

“Instead of having to go to the bottom of your wall and clicking more. Imagine expressing the story of your life where you have all the recent stuff that you’ve done, and then all the most important and meaningful things from you’re life are highlighted and called out for you to see right there.” Zuckerberg explained.

My first reaction was this is a cool idea, but do people really want to see all that. Then it hit me, what if you build this Timeline of yourself, a scrapbook of your entire life on Facebook if you will, and it stayed there even after you died. What if my great great grandfather or a historical figure had something like this available to them, a virtual diary/scrapbook and I was able to somehow view it now? That would be pretty powerful. It would be our online autobiographies, and a way for all of us to live on forever in the virtual world. A history of our existance, a record of who we are, and who we were.

But will people really take the time to curate their lives on their Facebook profile? Do we really want to be an open “book” in that way. Yes we can control what we share and who can see it, but the whole point of the new changes to Facebook is to share our life past and present. I guess with a new generation this will eventually become second nature. Won’t more and more generations just share their lives from an early age online? But we have to admit at this point it still gives all of us a bit of an uneasy feeling. Who do we limit this information to. What could people do with this information? Not to mention where do you draw the line from spending time sharing and interacting online, with actually living and interacting in the real world?

The other thought that came to mind was in the context of the Social Networking battle between Facebook and Google+, this really is a genius move on Facebook’s part. If people take the time and energy and invest it in curating their entire history of existence on Facebook, they will be even less likely to quit using Facebook and switch over to Google+ or any other service that comes along. I mean, we are already overloaded with social networking, we aren’t going to take the time to redo the story of our life on every site that comes along.

I know I’m torn, and it will be extremely interesting to see how users react to these major changes. Are we ready to invest even more of our lives and go all in and put our entire history of existence on Facebook? If so, I guess then years from now our kids, kids, kids could find out directly from us what our taste in music, art, and food was like. Well that, or they could at least see what our high score on Angry Birds was in 2011. Guess it depends on how seriously we take ourselves online and off.

Just five days after I posted the previous “Google+’s Biggest Advantage over Facebook” blog, I initiate a Hangout to learn more about Hangouts features. I video chat with the other two members of the Vauxite team: +Kristin Llamas, +Joe Abraham and even a friend who lives in London joins in. This is really cool I think to myself. We tease each other by muting each other and watch and change a couple youtube videos, and share some laughs. After a while we all agree we need to get back to work and say our goodbyes. As soon I close out, I see in my stream that Mark Hoppus from the band Blink-182 just started a Hangout. Hangout with a member of one of my favorite bands growing up? Sure, why not? I click Hangout. I check my hair. I get in. Mark asks where everyone is from as the chat quickly fills up. He says he’s currently on a lunch break from filming segments for his Fuse tv show “Hoppus on Music”. He fields questions as people scramble to think of what to ask next. Questions like, When is a new single going to be released? “Soon, but I can’t reveal exact details just yet.” Mark replies. What band, past or present would you love to tour with? “The Beatles.” he answers with little hesitation. I ask, “What is your most played song in iTunes?” “It’s a track called Esther’s from Amon Tobin’s album Foley Room.” Throughout the session there’s serious questions, joking around, and even some awkward silence here and there. For fifteen minutes it’s ten random people hanging out, except one of them happens to have sold over 27 million records worldwide. This is the power of Google+. Granted, chatting with a celebrity is an exception, but even before I was video chatting with a famous musician, I was Hanging out and having an emotional connection with people I’ve known for years. Some how Google is doing something Facebook hasn’t been able to do for me, make interacting through a computer more of a personal experience. When asked if he thought Google+ would take out Facebook? Mark answered, “I don’t know about that, but it seems cool and I’m liking it so far.”

I am too.

Check out some of the other celebrities that are on Google+:

+Mark Hoppus
https://plus.google.com/106086121009771648314/posts

+Alyssa Milano
https://plus.google.com/118254993345625377660/posts

+Mark Zuckerberg (It really is him, it’s been confirmed, and ironically he is the most followed Google+ user)
https://plus.google.com/104560124403688998123/posts

+Ashton Kutcher
https://plus.google.com/100300281975626912157/posts

+Pete Wentz
https://plus.google.com/111431694377519332046/posts

+Kanye West
https://plus.google.com/114559689060216093873/posts

Know any others that you’re pretty sure it’s really them? Post them in the comments.

As someone who lives and works online, I was eager to try out Google+ the moment it launched. I held out longer than most to join Facebook and didn’t get an account intending to share personally, but more to familiarized myself with Facebook for clients needs. I understood it’s power for businesses, and building and maintaining relationships with customers. Same with Twitter. But even though I was drawn in out of necessity, I couldn’t help but to start sharing my life over both services.

Now that I’ve managed to score the elusive Google+ invite and check the service out first hand, I have to admit… I was surprised. Mostly, because it really isn’t a complete rip off of Facebook as most would assume. Yes, Mark Zuckerberg is right. Google+ is validation of Facebooks vision. But as it’s been pointed out… Facebook was validation of Myspace’s vision, and look at Myspace now.

I found with Circles, Google+ is making it easier to share different content with the right people I intend it to be seen by. Yes, Facebook has lists, but it’s not as easy and upfront as Circles. For me it’s powerful to be able to separate with ease what’s appropriate for people I have a professional relationship with, and what’s appropriate for those I joke around with. It’s sharing in the same way we do everyday. We don’t have the same type of relationship with each person we interact with, so why should we with our social networks? It’s not a totally new concept but it is emphasized in Google+.

Hangouts is a cool feature allowing you to video with up to 10 people and even watch Youtube videos. Even though Facebook launched one on one video chat, the two are completely different concepts. I already use one on one video chat in Gmail quite a bit, so as soon as I installed Facebook’s video chat I tested it, but other than that I don’t see myself using it much. Where Hangouts is different is that it gives you the ability to do just that, hang out, bump into and interact with your people online.

Despite all of these features, where I feel Google+’s real advantage over Facebook is expectations. Google+ has the ability to change and adapt without as much scrutiny, because people aren’t invested yet the way they are in Facebook. This, coupled with Google’s interest in user feedback is what I believe make it the first real threat to Facebook. After all, I’ve always felt when Google launches a new product it’s like they are running it by me. With Facebook I feel like they are telling me what I want. That being said, after I post this blog, I’ll make sure I update my Facebook Status, not my Google+ Stream. Wonder how much that will change in a year?

Being a crack musician, when I opened up my computer and found the Les Paul Google Doodle Guitar on Google’s homepage (say that 5 times fast!) I immediately thought “Wow this is awesome!” I started out with a rendition of Come As You Are by Nirvana. Then I did Adam’s song by Blink 182 (click here to hear it). I thought to myself this is so appropriate for Nashville. Forget how much work productivity went down all over the world, I’m surprised the Music City didn’t come to a screeching halt. As the day progressed and I mixed web design work with monitoring the Google Doodle Guitar news feed it became apparent people really got into this. So, I thought I would share some of the best ditties I heard come out of the doodle…

Hey Jude on Google Doodle Guitar

Here Comes The Sun on Google Doodle Guitar

Blister In the Sun on Google Doodle Guitar

Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You on Google Doodle Guitar

Paparazzi on Google Doodle Guitar