Facebook Gets a Fresh Face

Love it or hate it, Facebook is changing.

The world's largest online social network recently announced a major overhaul that includes changing the way members organize and view their personal information and that of their friends.

The biggest change is a new feature called Timeline that replaces Facebook members' current profile page. Like they use the profile page, people will use their Timeline to share what they're doing with their friends. But rather than allowing older status updates to roll off the screen and into oblivion, Timeline keeps everything, turning it into a giant memory book to which people can also add facts, photos, maps and other details to tell their life story.

Facebook is offering Timeline and other features of its upgraded user interface to select users on a trial basis now and is expected to make it widely available in the coming weeks. Because Timeline is such a radical departure from the existing design, it's divided people into those who are OK with it and those who want Facebook to stay just the way it is. In typical fashion, people who hate the new look have started a Facebook page to say so. Find out more about how to fill in your Facebook Timeline in this tutorial from Mashable, the tech news website.

Facebook's reboot may be getting the most attention, but it's not the network's only new feature. Software developers continue to create games and other applications that let people do more while still inside the network. More companies are using it to do everything from sell products to recruit employees.

Here's a quick recap of some other new developments:

1. Facebook iPad app. It took a while, but this week the social network finally launched an iPad app, which is available from Facebook or at the iTunes store. With the app, you can use your fingertips to scroll through your News Feed, arrange photos into a flip-through album or watch videos in full-screen mode. Find out more about it in this Facebook blog post, or read this PC Magazine review, which calls it "more of a feast for the eyes than the fingers."

2. Subscribe button. In an attempt to out-Twitter Twitter, Facebook created a share feature called the Subscribe button that lets you follow people beyond your circle of Facebook friends, a great way to follow celebrities, artists or other public figures. In the reverse, by adding a Subscribe button to your Facebook account, you can let people read your Facebook status updates without having to add them as a friend, helpful if you're using Facebook to promote your small business. Here's a PC Magazine guide to using the Subscribe feature.

3. Games. Good news for Farmville addicts: This week Zynga and Facebook unveiled a version of the popular farming simulation game for mobile devices, along with mobile-enabled editions of Words With Friends and Zynga Poker. Zynga, which estimates 60 million people play its online games every week, rolled out a total of 10 new titles, including Mafia Wars 2, Zynga Bingo and Farmville-type castle and zoo building challenges. Lifehacker called an option for playing games on a full screen the "most exciting feature" of Facebook's new iPad app. See everything that's available on the Facebook Games page, or read about new games on FaceGamers, an independent website devoted to Facebook games.

4. Job hunting. So many companies are using Facebook to look for job candidates, developers of recruiting and other human-resources software started creating applications that live inside the online network. Job hunters can use Glassdoor.com, for example, to look up what employees say about working at any of 130,000 companies, or how other job seekers rate a company's interview process. BranchOut is a professional network -- think a mini LinkedIn that lives inside Facebook -- that lists 3 million jobs and 20,000 internships. A similar professional networking app is BeKnown, created by job board Monster Worldwide, which includes features that allow you to create a resume and separate your work life from your private life within the network.

Read more: 10 Need-to-Know Features on LinkedIn
Google+: Testing the Waters
10 Steps to Stat on Twitter