The TrendWatch

One of our favorite headlines coming out of Facebook’s F8 developer conference goes to Tech Crunch, “I Think Facebook Just Seized Control of the Internet.” We couldn’t say it any better.

Before F8, Facebook controlled only part of the social graph; the map of 400 million people and their relationships to each other. Now it’s set to take all of the separate maps (music, sports, restaurants, news, etc.) and pull them together:

If we can take the separate maps of the graph and pull them all together, then we can create a web that is more social, personalized, smarter and semantically aware.” – Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg

Regarding Facebook’s vision, what’s incredible or incredibly scary, depending on your persuasion, is how simple the technology is that’s powering it. Called Open Graph API, it’s amazing to think that one line of HTML will enable your website:
- to create an instant social experience for a user and his friends
- using everyone’s real identities
- without ever requiring anyone to log in

As impressive as the Open Graph API, Facebook also unveiled a host of social plug-ins designed to engage the user on your site:

Log in:
- shows a user the profile pics of his friends who have already joined your site

Activity stream:
- transports a user’s Facebook news feed to your site

Recommendations:
- finds the content Facebook thinks is most relevant and allows you to give truly personalized recommendations

Social bar:
- docks itself to the bottom of the screen
- creates in all in one social experience for your site

Zuckerberg’s theory is that the faster a user can get to a social experience, the more effective the experience will be. Perhaps with Facebook’s Open Graph API, brand websites won’t be dead after all. Instead, they’ll potentially live in a web where the default is social, but controlled by Facebook.