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Introducing Goodreads for Facebook Timeline
Enable Goodreads for Timeline
British playwright Alan Bennett once said, "A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot." At Goodreads, we completely agree. That's why we're excited to announce a new Goodreads app for Facebook Timeline.
Timeline—Facebook's redesigned profile—lets you easily track all of the things that are important to you across time. Goodreads members already share more than 12 million books a month with each other, and now with the Goodreads app for Timeline it's easy to share your books with all your Facebook friends, some of whom may not be Goodreads members—yet!
For book lovers, your Facebook Timeline is incomplete without sharing what you're reading. If you connect your Facebook account to Goodreads, you can share the books you're currently reading, as well as your new reviews, progress updates, and quotes, on your Timeline. It's a great way to share the books you love with everyone—regardless of whether you got the book from your library or you read it on your ereader.
Goodreads for Facebook Timeline displays your progress through the books you read.
The Facebook News Feed and Ticker create serendipity—such as showing you when two of your friends were reading the same article or listening to the same band. Now, with Goodreads for Timeline, you'll learn when two friends are reading the same book at the same time. Who knows, maybe you'll end up starting a new book club.
We also know how important it is to keep track of your reading. Facebook Timeline will help with this by creating interesting statistics on what you've read. The Goodreads summary will show which authors you've read the most each month and year, and also give you a roundup of your monthly books and pages read!
Timeline provides a summary of your monthly reading activity.
Starting today, you can add the books you're reading to your Timeline. In the future, you may be able to go back in time to add all the books from your Goodreads shelves that you've already read, so you can display your favorite books from all the important moments in your life. That would have made Louis L'Amour very happy: "Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you."
Adding Goodreads to your Timeline will give you a yearly report on the books and authors you love.
To add Goodreads to your Timeline click on this button:
Enable Goodreads for Timeline
You can also add Timeline from the apps tab in the "my account" section.
Here at Goodreads, we want to help people read more and discover great books, and we're happy to offer yet another way to do this with Goodreads for Facebook Timeline. As Chad Harbach wrote in his recent bestseller The Art of Fielding, "So much of one's life was spent reading; it made sense not to do it alone."
British playwright Alan Bennett once said, "A bookshelf is as particular to its owner as are his or her clothes; a personality is stamped on a library just as a shoe is shaped by the foot." At Goodreads, we completely agree. That's why we're excited to announce a new Goodreads app for Facebook Timeline.
Timeline—Facebook's redesigned profile—lets you easily track all of the things that are important to you across time. Goodreads members already share more than 12 million books a month with each other, and now with the Goodreads app for Timeline it's easy to share your books with all your Facebook friends, some of whom may not be Goodreads members—yet!
For book lovers, your Facebook Timeline is incomplete without sharing what you're reading. If you connect your Facebook account to Goodreads, you can share the books you're currently reading, as well as your new reviews, progress updates, and quotes, on your Timeline. It's a great way to share the books you love with everyone—regardless of whether you got the book from your library or you read it on your ereader.
Goodreads for Facebook Timeline displays your progress through the books you read.
The Facebook News Feed and Ticker create serendipity—such as showing you when two of your friends were reading the same article or listening to the same band. Now, with Goodreads for Timeline, you'll learn when two friends are reading the same book at the same time. Who knows, maybe you'll end up starting a new book club.
We also know how important it is to keep track of your reading. Facebook Timeline will help with this by creating interesting statistics on what you've read. The Goodreads summary will show which authors you've read the most each month and year, and also give you a roundup of your monthly books and pages read!
Timeline provides a summary of your monthly reading activity.
Starting today, you can add the books you're reading to your Timeline. In the future, you may be able to go back in time to add all the books from your Goodreads shelves that you've already read, so you can display your favorite books from all the important moments in your life. That would have made Louis L'Amour very happy: "Once you have read a book you care about, some part of it is always with you."
Adding Goodreads to your Timeline will give you a yearly report on the books and authors you love.
To add Goodreads to your Timeline click on this button:
You can also add Timeline from the apps tab in the "my account" section.
Here at Goodreads, we want to help people read more and discover great books, and we're happy to offer yet another way to do this with Goodreads for Facebook Timeline. As Chad Harbach wrote in his recent bestseller The Art of Fielding, "So much of one's life was spent reading; it made sense not to do it alone."
Comments Showing 101-150 of 437 (437 new)
message 101:
by
Sandy
(new)
Jan 19, 2012 08:17PM
I've added the Timeline connection, but now it appears my reviews don't show up in my Facebook News Feed. And, oddly enough, all my previous reviews show up in the Timeline, but not the one I just wrote after adding the Timeline connection. Why is this latest one missing?
flag
I also agree with Riku. Please at least give us the option of going back to the old version, or take a poll to see what the users of GoodReads prefer. I much prefer the old version- there was something exciting (at least to me) about seeing "Mary is on page 75 of 200 of Blah Blah Blah," complete with a picture of that book. Why change something that worked just fine to begin with? And if people gave the new way a try, and ended up disliking the changes, at least give them the option to revert back to the old version. This really is an unfair way to go about things.
I hate it. Don't use FB, though I do have an account. Haven't been there in 12 months. Have never linked GR & FB. Will never use Timeline. How do I get rid of the pop up?
I want to see the same front page of the book on FB timeline as I have chosen here!
Mary wrote: "I much prefer the old version- there was something exciting (at least to me) about seeing "Mary is on page 75 of 200 of Blah Blah Blah," complete with a picture of that book."You are not alone. That is the whole reason I love this site. And reading these comments has shown me that there are many of us who liked that the best and are dismayed that it is gone now. Please, please, please goodreads, allow us to have our silly little status updates on what page we are on. A lot of us loved that about your website.
***Update*** If you use google chrome as a web browser, try it in internet explorer instead. that worked for me!
Mike wrote: "***Update*** If you use google chrome as a web browser, try it in internet explorer instead. that worked for me!"Nope. Tried with five different browsers and what gets posted to facebook seems to be entirely arbitrary... Out of last 6-7 updates 1 got posted... (the updates were spaced atleast half hour apart) and Mike, you love goodreads enough to shift from chrome to ie and sabotage the rest of your net?? Wow :)
Mike wrote: "***Update*** If you use google chrome as a web browser, try it in internet explorer instead. that worked for me!"Hi Mike, It is working on Chrome too. I prefer it because it is much faster than IE. I do not think it is browser related though.
Michael wrote: "I don't use timeline and my ratings / reviews etc are no longer being posted to my wall. Does this have to do with this new feature? Do I have to use Facebook time line in order to have my reads ge..."I think so, because once set up, Goodreads has this timeline created for you.
Since I press "Enable Goodreads for Timeline" GR don't publish my updates anymore. I want a "Disable Goodreads for Timeline" too.
I just noticed that the only book cover displayed in recent activity section was only the recent update unless you view it as a timeline :|
i don't want my books on timeline - goodreads needs to provide the Facebook update that it had before, or i'll be closing this account.massive fail on goodreads part.
I enabled it against my better judgement. In my review box it says Facebook enabled. I checked my sharing settings and the review posted to Twitter, but it is nowhere in my Facebook timeline. Not in the Activity Log and there is no indication Goodreads is anywhere on my timeline. This is VERY frustrating.
Jacob wrote: "Adding new functionality is one thing, but now I seem to be missing the option to push a specific review to Facebook. I don't want to spam everything I do to FB. I just want to post certain reviews..."I agree. that's what I did too. I always post reviews only on facebook.
I too have the same issue. I don't see the images yet but I will be patient since I am excited to see the feed on my timeline. Thanks Goodreads for your constant improvement except for the removal of the book swap program that is. ^_^
I tried adding from the apps tab and nothing happens. would like to add
Tre wrote: "Evidently I have done everything right, but I have no graphic like the above on my timeline." me tooo, something wrong with the FB or just fake promotion???!!
This is proving useless. Nothing I click on works. Even if I log out and try logging in w/ facebook it won't let me do that. No connection at all w/ facebook.
I'm not a fan of Timeline. I would like to have Goodreads be a part of my Facebook account, but I'm not going to convert to Timeline, and it looks like Goodreads doesn't give me any choice. So unless or until you remove the requirement for timeline ... goodby Goodreads.
I added the feature and then marked one book as "read" and added a new book as "currently reading." Neither of these showed up in my Timeline, but I did get a status update that said I was reading a book called "Phudistus" which is a book in a foreign language that I have never even heard of it. When I look on Goodreads that book is not in "My Books" but Facebooks/Goodreads says I'm reading it ...
Before I start complaining about whether I like the new way versus the old way, I'd like for it to work at all! I can't get anything to post to my Facebook. *...
I am not on Timeline yet and will avoid it as long as possible! I only used Goodreads to post what books I was reading to my FB wall. Now it will not post the book I am reading, and I'm pretty bummed. I agree with other posters that without this working feature I would most likely quit using Goodreads.
Robert wrote: "I added this feature but all I am still seeing is the book I added in "recent activity". I'm still not seeing the graphics displayed above."If you're using the Timeline theme, check your Activity Log and then from the drop down in the top right, select the Goodreads app so the log is filtered to show only the Goodreads updates. Then make sure the dot at the far right of each timeline update is set to a solid black dot, which is "Shown on Timeline". A circle would denote that the Goodreads update is allowed to post to your timeline and the circle with the slash means the timeline update is hidden from view on your timeline.
You can get to your activity log by clicking your name up in the top right corner of the facebook page and you'll see Activity Log in the lower right corner of your cover photo.
Once your timeline update is set to be "shown on timeline", you'll see your reading progress on your timeline.
And what if nothing Goodreads-related shows in the Activity Log? Then how do we resolve the issue?Both sides (Goodreads and Facebook) are configured to talk to one another. My problem is that they still aren't doing so.
I have disabled and re-enabled the application in both Goodreads and Facebook, tried two different OS's (WinXP and 7 Home) and two different browsers (IE and Chrome), and there is still ZERO communication between Goodreads and Facebook on my account.
This thing should've been tested way more thoroughly before it was rolled out.
Okay...I'm willing to attempt to work with this new function, but I'm having problems. When I add a book to my to-read list, it shows up in my timeline (yay!), but not on my news feed (boo). I want to make sure that my updates aren't just added to my timeline, but also to my news feed. Is there a way to make sure this happens?
Riku wrote: "SO requesting again - why not allow dissatisfied beta testers to go back and use the older version until the bugs are sorted out? "I don't think you and a huge number of other Goodreads users are understanding it when Goodreads says that they are restricted by FACEBOOK on how their app works. My understanding is that Facebook no longer allows the "older version". Give Goodreads a bit of a break here, guys. They can only do as much as Facebook will allow them to do with their apps. If Facebook wants to force apps to no longer support updating anything other than their Timeline theme, then so be it. And if that's the case, arguments like this one of yours I quoted above should be pointed at Facebook, not Goodreads.
Angela wrote: "And what if nothing Goodreads-related shows in the Activity Log? Then how do we resolve the issue?Both sides (Goodreads and Facebook) are configured to talk to one another. My problem is that..."
Make sure you have the "Add App Activity To My Timeline" (if you've opted in to use the Facebook Timeline) for the Goodreads app on your Facebook account. https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab... You'll have to click Edit to the right of the Goodreads app in your applications list.
Mary wrote: "Okay...I'm willing to attempt to work with this new function, but I'm having problems. When I add a book to my to-read list, it shows up in my timeline (yay!), but not on my news feed (boo). I want..."
Facebook's Timeline and the News Feed are two different beasts. I think the Goodreads Facebook app only interfaces with the Timeline.
Matt wrote: Make sure you have the "Add App Activity To My Timeline" (if you've opted in to use the Facebook Timeline) for the Goodreads app on your Facebook account. https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ap... You'll have to click Edit to the right of the Goodreads app in your applications list.Matt, thank you for the advice. Yes, this function is already enabled in the Facebook portion of my app settings. I also have everything checked on the Goodreads side except the part to add my "to-read" list to the Timeline.
I just revoked and re-enabled the app (again) and added a new book to my currently reading list to test it. The book does not appear in my Activity Log, nor do the two or three I have recently changed ratings of.
Do you have any further sugestions?
Matt wrote: "My understanding is that Facebook no longer allows the "older version". Then how it is that people who did not activate goodreads timeline still have the old functionality?
Riku wrote: "Matt wrote: "My understanding is that Facebook no longer allows the "older version". Then how it is that people who did not activate goodreads timeline still have the old functionality?"
Show me an example.
If that's the case, that really stinks. I don't expect my friends to all individually visit my Facebook timeline to see my GoodReads udpates; I rely on my News Feed for that. I'm hoping that this gets fixed in the future. Also, is there a way to set ALL GoodReads updates to be "shown on my timeline," rather than me having to go into my Activity Log and manually changing each one? Because that will also get tiresome very fast. =/
Mary wrote: Also, is there a way to set ALL GoodReads updates to be "shown on my timeline," rather than me having to go into my Activity Log and manually changing each one? Because that will also get tiresome very fast. =/ Mary, it's my understanding that it's something on Facebook's end, not Goodreads. The Timeline apparently synchs to what each user think is important, so, after you do this a few times or select "always show on my timeline," Facebook should figure it out and respect your preferences.
Why will my GR not post anything to my FB account? I don't have timeline and now nothing will post to my account. Why?
Angela wrote: "Matt wrote: Make sure you have the "Add App Activity To My Timeline" (if you've opted in to use the Facebook Timeline) for the Goodreads app on your... Do you have any further sugestions? "Sorry, I'm afraid I don't. I can only show you the way I have mine configured and that it's working and maybe you could compare yours to mine.
I have the Goodreads Facebook app added to my Facebook and my Goodreads account is connected to it. This screenshot shows the configuration for the app on the Goodreads side.
Then, I went to my Facebook page and accessed my Application Settings page to make sure the Goodreads app was listed. Then I clicked on the Edit link to the right of the Goodreads app and made these configuration changes.
Then, I accessed my Facebook Activity Log (when you are viewing your own Timeline, click the Activity Log button in the lower right corner of your Cover image) and made the following changes. **This implies that you're at least getting the "made progress" updates in your "Recent Activity" list on Facebook.
With this configuration that I have, I get Timeline updates like this on my Facebook.
Mary wrote: "If that's the case, that really stinks. I don't expect my friends to all individually visit my Facebook timeline to see my GoodReads udpates; I rely on my News Feed for that. I'm hoping that this g..."Your Facebook friends don't see your News Feed. They never have seen your News Feed, even before Facebook came out with the Timeline. Only you see your News Feed. The only thing your friends on Facebook see when they stalk your profile is the Timeline.
I think the "shown on my timeline" setting is probably something you'll have to contact Facebook about (which is nearly impossible to do). Unless, the Goodreads app offers that capability.
Thank you again, Matt. Those screenshots are very useful. That's how I have mine set up at well, both for Facebook and Goodreads. It's good to know I wasn't overlooking anything. Sadly, there is still nothing in the activity log.
I guess I will have to be patient and hope this sorts itself out in time.
Matt, what I meant was that when I send UPDATES to my Facebook, it shows up in everyone else's respective News Feed, too. As in, the first thing they see when they log onto Facebook. For example, when I decide to share a video from YouTube on Facebook, it will show up in my News Feed, as well as in my friends' respective News Feeds. I know no one but me can access MY OWN News Feed. What I'm talking about is having my GoodReads updates show on my friends' News Feeds, and not just on my Timeline, because again, I don't expect each and every one of my friends to click on my Timeline individually to see my updates. I rely on my updates showing up in my friends' News Feeds for that.
Mary wrote: "Matt, what I meant was that when I send UPDATES to my Facebook, it shows up in everyone else's respective News Feed, too. As in, the first thing they see when they log onto Facebook. For example, w..."Ah, I see. I can't comment on whether that's happening. I've not asked any of my friends if they've seen my Goodreads updates in their News Feeds.
I must have misunderstood before, I apologize, but I get what were trying to explain now. Though, I don't think this would be something that Goodreads could 'fix' within their app. I would think it has something to do with the way Facebook allows apps to share updates.
Judging by the availability of an "app activity privacy" setting on Facebook for the Goodreads app (shown in this screenshot), I would assume if that is set to "Friends", then updates from the Goodreads app should be viewable by your friends in their News Feeds.
Matt, it's okay! I can see where you got confused with my wording! Facebook has been acting strangely since even before the Timeline feature came into play (think: as far back as changing things so that they're "top stories," etc). I'll post things and sometimes they don't even show up in MY News Feed (but they show up in my friends' News Feeds and I get comments from them). So it's hard for me to tell if it's just that these updates are just not showing up in my News Feed, or if they're not showing up in anyone's Feeds. So confusing. I understand that it's not GoodReads job to fix a Facebook glitch, though. And I also know that it's beyond impossible to get any sort of answer from the powers that be at Facebook. Basically, I'm left hoping that, even though my updates from GoodReads aren't showing up in my News Feed (but they ARE on my Timeline), that they're showing up on my friends' News Feeds.
Hi all- Sorry for the confusion here. We'd be happy to help you each troubleshoot individual issues if you email some additional information to support [at] goodreads [dot] com.Mary wrote: "Matt, what I meant was that when I send UPDATES to my Facebook, it shows up in everyone else's respective News Feed, too. As in, the first thing they see when they log onto Facebook. For example, w..."
It's my understanding that Facebook's algorithms decide what to show in your friends' News Feeds, so we don't actually have control over that.
Krista ~Fhatal Attrhaction~ wrote: "So I can only post my reviews on books?? I can no longer post my to-read or how far I am in a book? That really sucks if so! ..."
Actually, you are supposed to be able to do that. They should show up as "Krista marked x to-read on Goodreads" and "Krista made progress on ..." If you're having trouble with that, please email support and we'll help you figure out what's going wrong.
Kara, is it possible to change the new feature so that instead of saying "Mary made progress on...," it says "Mary is on page 75 of 200 of...."? I liked (and many other commenters also preferred it) the "page number" progress update much better. Just a thought for when tweaking the kinks comes into play. =)
Mary wrote: "Kara, is it possible to change the new feature so that instead of saying "Mary made progress on...," it says "Mary is on page 75 of 200 of...."? I liked (and many other commenters also preferred it..."We'd love to do that, but all Facebook "actions" have to have consistent names. So all "review" actions must show up as "finished reading" and all "to-read" actions must show up as "marked as to-read", etc etc. Page numbers are different every time (depending on the user and their progress), so we had to settle on "made progress".
That said, if you feature the individual progress update (by going into your "Activity Log" and selecting "shown on Timeline" for that entry), the page number should show up in its own box.
Ah, thank you Kara. It seems that it's really Facebook that's causing all of the trouble (because of the need for consistent names) and not GoodReads. Apologies for my first (somewhat irrational without knowing all the facts) outburst yesterday! I asked this question already, and someone did answer me, but maybe you could clarify? Will Facebook eventually recognize that I'm going into my "Activity Log" to select "Shown on Timeline" for all of my GoodReads updates? I'd love for Facebook to end up defaulting all of my GoodReads updates to "Shown On Timeline" so that I don't have to do it individually every time! Again, I understand that that's more of a Facebook question, but it's a well known fact that contacting Facebook is more of a joke than anything. ;) And maybe you know the answer!
Mary, no worries, I completely understand your frustration. It's pretty complicated at the moment, but we're working to iron out what's going on with Facebook to formulate more concrete and intuitive instructions. Hopefully, we can get those out today, but either way, I'll be sure to let you know.
I did it for Facebook and Twitter. My Twitter feed shows up, but nothing on my Facebook.
It took a little while but Goodreads is now showing up in the Activity Log. Thanks for all the screen shots @Matt. They were a huge help.But what about these GoodReads boxes shown in the promos at the top of this blog and on Twitter that imply people on my Timeline (inlcuding me) would be able to see a snapshot of everything I'm reading or want to read. Anyone know how to make that appear?
By the way, in my frustration this morning, I simply decided to post the url of one of my reviews as a status update. That worked fine.
Alena: did you add Goodreads to your Favorites list? On the top of your Timeline, you'll see a couple of boxes: Friends, Photos, Likes, etc. There should be a tiny drop-down to the far right with a number. Click on that, which should cause more boxes to appear. Do you see Goodreads in one of those boxes (besides the "likes" box)? If not, click the plus sign on an empty box and select "Goodreads". If you then click on that Goodreads box, you should be taken to a page with your "All time" box. Eventually, Facebook should place a "January" box on your profile, but the timing of that is up to them, I believe.
Kara wrote: "Alena: did you add Goodreads to your Favorites list? On the top of your Timeline, you'll see a couple of boxes: Friends, Photos, Likes, etc. There should be a tiny drop-down to the far right with a..."Hugely helpful. Thank you Kara. I think I'm getting the hang of it.
Everyone has been so helpful getting Goodreads on my Timeline to show up! It seems to be working as well as it can, and I'm pretty excited.My only question is, right now mine is showing what I've 'made progress on', but it isn't showing the books I've finished as 'finished'. Is there something more I need to check, or do, to get this to work? (And what about showing reviews?)
I finished the new John Green book yesterday and it's only showing me still in progress, but not finished. I try not to be so anal about things, but it's kind of bugging me, lol.
Hi Wendy - I'd be happy to help troubleshoot. I have a couple of questions for you:1) Do you see any of the "finished" actions in your Activity Log? Or are they not showing up at all?
2) Did you set a "date started" for the book? What was it?
3) Did you set a "date finished" for the book? What was it?
