The Timeline feature that was added for Facebook users has gotten mixed reviews ever since it started replacing the older profile pages for Facebook subscribers. The idea of your profile now being presented as a timeline of your Facebook life sounds good in theory but in practice it does take some getting used to.
Now Microsoft has revealed a new software project from its Microsoft Research division that seems on the surface to be similar to Timeline. Microsoft calls the project Lifebrowser. Like Timeline, it's an attempt to organize a person's electronic content as if it were one seamless look into a person's history.
However, that's basically where the similarities for the two projects end. Lifebrowser is more about helping the user find and search for his or her content rather than presenting their profile and history for others to read. As explained by the web site, Lifebrowser uses "machine learning and reasoning" in order to create a history of the user's life via photos, events, notes and other content.
The program can actually figure out what a person's most important events are in their life and when they occur. A person can search through the Lifebrowser program to find specific photos or events in that life history, which certainly makes filing photos more interesting and efficient.
The software even has a "volume control" of sorts that allows users to zoom in and out of the Lifebrowser to examine and find content from the history in more detail. There's no word on when or even if Microsoft plans to release Lifebrowser to the public.
Image via Microsoft
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