Get ready for increased Facebook ubiquity. The social networking site has announced plans on its official blog for increasing its presence on the social web. Co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg writes:
[…W]e are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone. We have redesigned Facebook Platform to offer a simple set of tools that sites around the web can use to personalize experiences and build out the graph of connections people are making.
Right now, you can sample how this will work by visiting three of the pre-selected partners, Microsoft Docs, Yelp and Pandora. One feature is that you don’t have to sign into these sites individually if you’re already signed into Facebook. Websites will also be able to embed universal “Like” buttons. Miguel Helft at The New York Times explains:
While ‘Share’ buttons allow users to post links that their friends see on their Facebook pages, those links are fleeting. The Like button will allow Facebook to keep a record of what a user linked to, providing the company with ever more data about people’s preferences. Facebook, in turn, plans to share that data with Web publishers, so that a magazine Web site, for instance, may be able to show users all the articles that their friends like. A site like Yelp may show reviews from a user’s friends, rather than those from strangers.
If you’re signed into Facebook, you will get a notice at the top of your browser screen the first time you visit these websites. You can either click “Learn More” to get further information on how it all works, or opt out by clicking “No Thanks.” You will also still need to disallow Instant Personalization in your Facebook privacy settings if you don’t want your Facebook friends to be able to share your public profile information.
Facebook is increasing its online reach to expand its advertising dollars and other moneymaking opportunities. On a more idealistic note, however, Zuckerberg writes, “We look forward to a future where all experiences are this easy and personalized, and we’re happy today to take the next important step to get there.”
Austin Haugen, a product manager for Facebook Platform, gives a few more examples on The Facebook Blog of how the universal “Like” button will work.
Source: “Building the Social Web Together,” The Facebook Blog, 04/21/10
Source: “Facebook Seeps Onto Other Web Sites,” The New York Times, 04/18/10
Image by soundfromwayout, used under its Creative Commons license.