LEARNINGS FROM F8
In May of 2007, Facebook opened its platform for application developers to build upon. Besides being the launch of a myriad of businesses (including appssavvy), it also became a defining moment as to how marketers viewed Facebook. This was the beginning of Facebook as a tool, and thus the question became as much, “How do I leverage Facebook?” as it was, “How do I buy Facebook?”
At the F8 Conference in April, Facebook made some of its biggest announcements since the original F8 in 2007. Facebook is socializing the Web and providing tools for developers and marketers alike to increase our ability to connect with users through social activity across the Internet.
What do these changes mean for you? Here’s a breakdown of the changes and additions made by Facebook:
OPEN GRAPH:The collective announcements from F8 can be grouped under the term Open Graph and represent a massive shift by Facebook toward powering the social Web. Essentially, through newly available tools and APIs, any Web site can now be treated like a Facebook fan page, complete with social functionality, the ability to “Like” the entire page or individual pieces of content, and the ability for the site owner to publish feed stories to their fans.
Our Take:
From 2007 until now, we’ve seen a Web-wide migration to Facebook – this change marks the beginning of a return to the Web, with sites now bringing the tools and audiences previously available only on the Facebook platform. Additionally, let the “Like” rush begin, as we’ll likely see social recommendation become a big piece of data discovery in the future.
SOCIAL PLUGINS:
Facebook released an expansive set of APIs and Social Plug-ins that allow Web sites across the Internet to socialize quickly and easily using the Facebook social graph. Sites like Pandora and CNN have debuted integrations allowing you to discover what music friends are listening to or what articles they find interesting. User activity is published to the Facebook newsfeed.
Our Take:
Social plug-ins are the quickest way to make your site personally relevant to your audience. Early reports suggest increased traffic and interaction across sites that have already integrated these.
SEARCH & AGGREGATION:
Facebook’s new Open Graph API’s allow for new methods and possibilities for search and aggregation. With new and expanded amounts of data being made available to 3rd party sites, we’ll begin to see an increased emphasis on social information discovery. Services such as Likebutton.me have already sprung up and provide centralized hubs for a user to track their friends’ activity across the web. Additionally, Facebook’s new system for categorizing and tagging sites across the web marks the beginnings of a new standard and a truly semantic social web.
Our Take:
This potentially marks the beginning of a new generation of truly social search. Whereas up until now, information discovery has primarily occurred through a universal page rank, search may begin to shift towards a more social-page-rank. This is a huge move by Facebook.
ADDITIONAL CHANGES:
Additional new or expanded Facebook services include a robust analytics package (similar to Google Analytics) that can be used on Facebook or on conventional Web sites, more details about the Facebook virtual currency platform soon to be rolled out, and refined methods for identifying site visitors by their Facebook ID and collecting user permissions.
Our Take:
These tools and services are all designed to encourage Web site developers to integrate Facebook features. From a user standpoint, navigating the social Web will be smoother and Facebook accounts are well on their way to becoming the universal user-IDs of the Web.
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