For those of you who missed the Livestream of yesterday’s F8 Facebook Conference, CEO Mark Zuckerburg announced some major changes to the future of Facebook, which in a nutshell is to try and realise his vision of making the whole web social. Within Facebook, the focus is shifting from ‘what you say’ to ‘what you do’. Here are some of the major changes announced:
1. Facebook Profiles Are Replaced With ‘Timelines’
Facebook claimed that Facebook is no longer going to show ’15 minutes of your story’ but instead a timeline of your life. Here is a snapshot of the new Facebook Timeline design.
2. Facebook Announce Open Graph
Facebook have announced that they’re going to be closing down their ‘Connect’ product and replacing it with a new protocol and API called Open Graph. The purpose of Open Graph is to help external websites integrate with Facebook as easily as possible. Websites currently using the Open Graph include Microsoft’s Docs.com, Pandora, and Yelp.
The Open Graph will also allow external websites to auto-login users who have never visited the website before, raising some serious privacy concerns.
3. Facebook Verbs
Facebook have announced a new set of verbs that can be used to interact with content. You no longer have to ‘like’ a post – instead, you can ‘watch’, ‘hike’, ‘cook’, ‘bike’, ‘listen’, or ‘read’ people’s updates.
Here is a good post outlining what Facebook Verbs mean for marketers.
Other Updates
There were also more updates announced around Facebook launching a new ‘Facebook Bar’, new like buttons, advanced location tracking, and more social plugins. Here is a more in-depth summary of some of these minor updates.
This is really great for those facebook users who really want who prefer more privacy and independence than others, but don’t let that one thing turn you off completely. Changes will be seen in the area of your social apps also.