Every time Facebook makes a timeline change, people moan and groan. This time around, I’m pleasantly surprised to see that most people are enjoying the new timeline look. Word about the impending Facebook timeline has been circulating for a few weeks now, though Facebook just officially launched the new timeline today.

The idea behind the new look is to provide users with a cleaner profile page. In addition to a page that’s easy to navigate, users (and friends of users) can now view specific years via photos or status updates. Really, as Facebook has pointed out, it’s a way to see your entire life (or your life after you joined Facebook) on one page. After taking awhile to play with the time this morning, here are my first impressions.

Simpler and Cleaner

Facebook has really done a great job of creating a profile page that’s simple to look at. The larger cover photo addition (you can now add a very large photo of yourself to your profile) is a fun way to show people who you really are. Instead of posting your regular profile picture to your new timeline, get creative. Add a photo of a city or of one part of your face. Really, the sky’s the limit when it comes to the new cover photo, so mix it up.

You can also add places where you’ve been, trips you’ve taken, and places where you have lived. You can connect all of these places with specific photographs. So, for example, if you went to Jamaica in 2010 and took photos while you were there, you can now tag that part of the world on your profile map and link it to your photos. The only issue I found while trying to add trip details was that it’s difficult to remember exact dates. If you don’t include exact dates, the timeline will automatically add today’s date. Otherwise, this portion of the timeline works as stated by Facebook.

Privacy

It’s impossible to mention the word “Facebook” without also mentioning the word “privacy,” and this is something that Facebook is well aware of. You can now change the way that people view each part of your profile. If you don’t want everyone to see what is included in your profile, all you have to do is select who can see what section of your profile. This is a great way to prevent outsiders from looking at all of your photos and updates. There are bound to be some complaints surrounding the new timeline, but, like it or not, Facebook will make this timeline mandatory for everyone on December 22nd.

The good news is that you have seven days (starting today) to update, change, and edit your timeline before your profile will be changed. If you want to see what information people can see about you, now’s the time to check it out. Facebook has also added a handy feature that allows you to see how specific people view your profile, and this is worth using at least a few times – just in case some details you want to keep private are suddenly public. Here’s where you can go to set up your own Facebook timeline.