Facebook prepares to take over the world as new features announced

[editor]

This is simple - but damn clever.

Facebook will be introducing a universal 'like' button that publishers can add to their websites, turning the site into a search engine/recommendation engine for the entire web.

Facebook’s new suite of tools, which include activity feeds for other Facebook users, recommendation engines as well as the ‘like’ button, will let publishers embed Facebook functionality on their own websites – and what publisher isn’t going to want to have their pages plugged into Facebook’s enormous network?

Traffic galore

The potential for extra traffic is too good to ignore: once a user gives a page the thumbs up, it gets linked from their Facebook profile with the abiilty to publish it to their newsfeed.

Already, big time publishers like CNN and the New York Times have signed up, and Facebook anticipates serving more than 1 billion buttons in the first 24 hours, with participating publishers expected to see a lot of traffic coming from the social networking site.

“Facebook potentially could power an all-knowing behavioural-targeting platform the likes of which we’ve never seen before,” said Ian Schafer, CEO of Deep Focus, while the company’s Zuckerberg described its “open social graph” as a way for publishers to create personalised web experiences for users based on their like history.

It's going to be *massive*.

http://www.wirefresh.com/facebook-prepares-to-take-over-the-world-as-new-features-announced

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Are you getting an urban one?

 

[grit]

Nice move, still waiting for their big location based services announcement. Surprised they havnt moved on it yet.

 

[Belushi]

Very clever.

 

[DotCommunist]

CIA datamining goes epic

 

[danny la rouge]

What is this "like" button like? I've read the link but still don't really understand.

 

[editor]

What is this "like" button like? I've read the link but still don't really understand.

Say you're reading my new Mrs Mills article on urban and like it.

You'll click the new 'like' button so it will appear on your Facebook profile, with a link back to the article.

Others looking at your FB profile will see that you've liked this article and possibly take a look. End result: more traffic for me.

If you're surfing music sites with the like button enabled and you use a participating web streaming service like Pandora, it'll remember your musical likes and offer to play them as well as serve up gig dates/bios etc. And that's just the top of the iceberg.

 

[danny la rouge]

Say you're reading my new Mrs Mills article on urban and like it.

You'll click the new 'like' button so it will appear on your Facebook profile, with a link back to the article.

Others looking at your FB profile will see that you've liked this article and possibly take a look. End result: more traffic for me.

If you're surfing music sites with the like button enabled and you use a participating web streaming service like Pandora, it'll remember your musical likes and offer to play them as well as serve up gig dates/bios etc. And that's just the top of the iceberg.

Ah, got it now. Cheers.

 

[Crispy]

Christ, this is going to clutter up people's newsfeeds to fuck

 

[editor]

Christ, this is going to clutter up people's newsfeeds to fuck

It's damn clever though. What website isn't going to want a Facebook 'like' button on it and the company are going to be swimming in luvverly user data.

 

[stupid dogbot]

Christ, this is going to clutter up people's newsfeeds to fuck

It already is.

<person> likes biscuits!

Hooray, thanks for sharing.

 

[Crispy]

It's damn clever though. What website isn't going to want a Facebook 'like' button on it and the company are going to be swimming in luvverly user data.

Can I just say, right now, that we can't ever ever have this button on the forums. Ever.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

What's the difference between this and all the usual social media buttons that clutter up blogs at the moment? Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Technorati etc.

 

[strung out]

Can I just say, right now, that we can't ever ever have this button on the forums. Ever.

why not? sounds like fun. i can 'like' all my threads.

 

[BettyBlue]

Well i think the most they'll get from my use of the 'like' button is :

Betty Blue likes To Move It Move It

and...

Betty Blue likes It Rough

Data mine that, CIA

 

[editor]

What's the difference between this and all the usual social media buttons that clutter up blogs at the moment? Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Technorati etc.

The data will connect with third party sites - like Pandora - to offer extra stuff, and unlike Digg, Twitter etc the information becomes part of their Facebook profile - which is already the biggest social networking site of the lot.

With all those user recommendations flooding in, the search/trending potential is huge.

 

[mincepie]

Does Facebook make money? Lots of money?? I've no idea - anyone? I mean I know they have lots of users and lots of content, but bandwith and servers must cost money, and I never feel the urge to click on the adverts. Maybe other people do click. Plenty of big websites it seems, didn't work out how to make cash.

Some sort of Facebook tie up between Office suite online and Facebook seems quite smart. First "grownup" use of facebook.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/apr/22/facebook-docs-microsoft-office

 

[Crispy]

They only started making a profit late last year according to the LA Times

They do well out of advertising because they can offer incredibly focussed campaigns due to their mountain of user data.

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Christ, this is going to clutter up people's newsfeeds to fuck

I use greasemonkey and a plugin on firefox, which eliminates all the stuff like farmville from my newsfeed as well as the ads. I'm sure it will be updated to deal with this.

 

[Onket]

Can I just say, right now, that we can't ever ever have this button on the forums. Ever.

I'm with Crispy on this one.

 

[kerb]

I'm with Crispy on this one.

Me too.

I can't remember a company to change their terms and conditions as much as fb do.

 

[grit]

All it is, is just a streamlined version of cutting and pasting a url into a status update.

 

[mwgdrwg]

I use greasemonkey and a plugin on firefox, which eliminates all the stuff like farmville from my newsfeed as well as the ads. I'm sure it will be updated to deal with this.

Nice. I'll download that extension when I get in later. Thanks.

 

[Crispy]

you can hide individual apps from your feed - ie. mafia wars and farmville - no plugins needed

 

[UnderOpenSky]

you can hide individual apps from your feed - ie. mafia wars and farmville - no plugins needed

Much nicer to kill them all in one fell swoop and never be bothered by them again!

 

[Crispy]

yeah, but nicer still to kill them no matter which browser you're on!

 

[FridgeMagnet]

The data will connect with third party sites - like Pandora - to offer extra stuff, and unlike Digg, Twitter etc the information becomes part of their Facebook profile - which is already the biggest social networking site of the lot.

With all those user recommendations flooding in, the search/trending potential is huge.

Hm. I can't really see what my motivation would be, as a site owner, to include a Facebook button though, any more than the normal social networking "chicklets". It seems more like it's to enable Facebook to sell targeted spam. Er, ads.

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

hell

 

[debaser]

do not want!

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Coincidentally I was just reading this about Facebook aggregating and displaying more personal data on a mandatory basis, including "current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests".

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/04/facebook-further-reduces-control-over-personal-information

Well actually you *can* opt out - in fact, it's technically an "opt-in" system, you have to agree apparently. It's just that if you opt out of sharing the data with everyone, it deletes it completely.