Facebook & Open Graph API

Facebook and founder Zuckerberg are moving in big time to make our world wide web a more social, more 'like' friendly ecosphere. The Open Graph concept, at the moment, is about aggregating what people see, read, review, interact with and recommend. This way, people like you and me, would better connect – not just with what brands are saying about themselves and our reacting to them, but also amongst each of us, and sharing that opinion. It's Yelp all over, in a way.

It's connected via umbilical cord to Facebook's new “Like” button. FB's "Like" icon (or button) is a plug in. It let's us comment on what we see, experience in form of any kind of web content and put a positive spin on it via the "thumbs up' or Like icon. For FB related developing, the code is provided for developers to drop into their head tags. Bingo, the functionality is auto-added.
Zuckerberg claims that 1 billion “Like” buttons will be clicked on within 24 hours of launch.

Facebook's “Like” button is really an experience enhancer – one that brings a feeling of true interactivity to the world of customer vis-a-vis brand/product. Simple Facebook actions like 'add' or 'join' (as in a fan club) becoes a lot more social and has a lot more impact and reach – including leaving an impression on that brand's page or website. Not sure where that would leave the Facebook Connect concept, because 'Like' has quite a wide ranging footfall across both brand and social ecosphere.

Facebook in a release said:
You’ll begin seeing “Like,” or in some cases “Recommend,” buttons appearing on popular websites spanning a variety of industries, including NYTimes.com, IMDb, CNN.com, TIME.com, LIFE.com, Fandango, NHL.com, USA Networks, Levis.com, Univision and ABC.com.

For example, if I like a pair of jeans on Levis.com, my action will be shared with my friends on Facebook, where they can comment on it. I can also see which of my friends like the jeans on Levis.com.

1 comments :

Fantastic post Tom. Facebook Connect was only the beginning to the master plan that is Open Graph. Where Facebook Connect let you connect, Open Graph lets you go many steps further and build up on that connection by including various elements of interaction thus making every complying website social.

As for the graph, we will now see the network where the only nodes were people change to one where the notes are both people and things (pages/websites). I've done a bit of analysis on the blog. It'll be interesting to see what more developers can make of it.

Reply

Post a Comment