(Image Source: Facebook)

BY EVAN BUSH

ANCHOR CHRISTINA HARTMAN

It’s here! After allowing developers -- and those pretending to be developers  -- to take sneak peeks about a month ago, Facebook has unveiled its latest feature in a design change that has users buzzing.

It’s called Timeline. Its mission: To catalog all your embarrassing status updates, pictures and wall comments into a chronological stream --- as a digital guide to your life -- or at least your life as represented on Facebook. Here’s how the LA Times describes it.

“Timeline is like an obsessive compulsive’s digital scrapbook, collecting every detail, no matter how trivial, in chronological order.”

The change is optional -- for now -- though users will be forced to update their designs in one week. And as USA Today explains -- that means users will...

“... have seven days after switching to Timeline to prune them from your profile before Timeline becomes the default look on your profile page.”

The re-design has received mostly positive reviews from the tech world, many saying it was time for an update to the once-monotone blue social media juggernaut. And Wired writes -- the revamp came about organically ---a product of Facebook’s prized start-up culture.

“It all started with a hack called Memories. This spring, Facebook held one of its famous hackathons — a caffeine-fueled, all-night coding bender where the only rule is that you can’t work on anything you’d normally work on during the day — and Memories was one of the slap-dash software creations that appeared the next morning.”

Adweek writes -- the update is smart, but Facebook’s missing a key component.

“The new design is slightly wider, more visually engaging, and offers a much more comprehensive view of each user. … When asked about Timeline pages for brands, a Facebook spokeswoman said that they are focusing on individual members and have nothing more to announce at this time.”

Still, the move is expected to help the social network leader bring in the green -- and is designed to facilitate its shift into the mobile ad market. Brandchannel has more.

“As Facebook’s Timeline feature rolls out globally… the social media behemoth is jumping into a new revenue stream: mobile advertising. It’s getting ready to leverage the shift to tablets and smartphones just in time to boost its coffers prior to a projected $10 billion IPO.”

Not that Facebook needs much more in those coffers -- recent reports suggest Facebook could have cash on hand totalling in the billions.