With the new features and changes announced on Thursday, Facebook is looking to boost in the amount of sharing its users engage in, said industry analyst Greg Sterling from Sterling Market Intelligence.

"The new features are not radically new or different. The Timeline is an elegant presentation of your activities, while the social apps are an extension of what's existed," Sterling said in an interview.

If it accomplishes that goal, Facebook may end up dealing with a double-edged sword. On the positive side, users will benefit from more discovery of content, like TV shows and songs, but they may end up exposing a lot more data, leading to potential privacy concerns, Sterling said.

Sean Corcoran, a Forrester Research analyst, praises the new features, saying that they give Facebook a much stronger competitive position because they make Facebook the center of people's online lives.

"These changes not only help trump rival Google, but will open up new opportunities for marketers with new kinds of customer experiences, long term engagement, advertising, and customer intelligence," he wrote in a note e-mailed to journalists.