Last week’s F8 conference resulted in some pretty major announcements by Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. Just to give you a little background, F8 is Facebook’s developer conference and this is the third installment. In 2007 they announced the Facebook developer platform (i.e., Facebook Apps — now there are 500,000 FB apps); in 2008, Facebook Connect was announced (there are now 100 million FB connect users); and this year is the Open Graph.
The Open Graph is a simple way to integrate your website content into Facebook and track reader statistics without having to duplicate it in a Facebook page. Using the Open Graph, this content shows up richly throughout user profiles and news feeds drawing people back to your website. Second, the Open Graph allows you to personalize your website to the user and add layers of social integration. Content can be tailored to the individual based on their interests, previous pages they have liked and the interests of their friends.
The notion of the Open Graph is truly expanding the existing Social Graph in Facebook to the entirety of the Internet. The simplest level of integration with FB’s Open Graph is through using snippets of code, placing Facebook “Like” buttons on your website. This allows readers to “Like” and comment on pieces of content right on a website without having to redirect them into Facebook. The information is fed back into their news feed for all their friends to see. In addition, when these friends visit the same website, they’ll actually see the familiar FB text “ Tom Cochran likes this” as a trusted source’s endorsement.
Facebook has over 400 million users — up from 200 million a year ago — now and for our clients this is an incredible opportunity to reach a huge audience (in March, Facebook passed Google in US web traffic). We all know that people are more likely to read content or engage with an organization’s message if they receive it from a trusted source.
These announcements are not without controversy, with Senator Schumer calling for the Federal Trade Commission to “provide guidelines for social networking sites ... on how private information submitted by online users can be used and disseminated.” Ironically, Schumer also posted this release on his Facebook page. Schumer’s concern is that users are automatically opted into sharing their Facebook data with third-party sites like Pandora, Yelp and CNN.
We’re going to be keeping an eye on these developments, both technology and legislative, because they’re going to have a major impact on how we consume content on the Web. It’s the next logical step in the evolution of the Web, but there is a fine line between privacy and personalization.
Tom has over ten years of experience in architecting web applications, having developed software for numerous government agencies and political campaigns during the '04 and '06 cycles.
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