Facebook's new “Open Graph API (application programming interface)” was created to enable Facebook and other sites to take information they know about their users and automatically personalize the experience people have online. And I thought Google was the only company that could invade our privacy in this way. Silly me.
Facebook’s New Open Graph Is Web Of The Future!
Beginning immediately if you visit a participating news site or a music-sharing site you may see certain content based on some of your previous preferences which you identified while on Facebook or one of the participating sites. One example is that Facebook has already, automatically, connected you with Facebook “Communities” that are consistent with the “Interests” and “Activities” you have listed in your Facebook Profile. When you visit a participating site, You could also see a list of your own Facebook friends who are already registered on the other site, and even comments they have posted there.
“People can have instantly social and personalized experiences everywhere they go,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO, during a keynote speech at the company's F8 conference for developers.
Facebook is also making available a series of iFrame plug-ins developers may drop into their Web pages to re-create Facebook functionality, such as the new “Like” button. This button lets web site visitors tell Facebook and external Web sites they're interested in specific news articles, music, books and other content.
Facebook has been moving in this direction for some time, the company has now significantly simplified the tools developers may use to build applications and integrate Facebook into their sites, said Bret Taylor, head of Facebook Platform products. “The Facebook platform can be both powerful and simple,” he said.
Among the partners joining Facebook in its F8 announcement is Microsoft, with which it built a joint site called Docs for Facebook users to collaborate on online documents. This, at first glance, looks like it could compete against Google Docs. Other partners include customer review site Yelp and music site Pandora.
Facebook's goal is to move from a Web that's connected via hyperlinks to one “where the default is social” and has users with real identities at its center, Zuckerberg said.
Neither Zuckerberg nor Taylor spoke much about the implications, if any, of the announcements on users' privacy, always a big question for me, since Facebook is a site where people store and share a lot of very personal information and content.
I don't see this going away. It's only going to expand, and there's little you can do about it. I see it as the new Web 3.0. Yes, you can opt out. You can close your Facebook account, since the open graph platform only applies to Facebook members. I'm afraid that doing this will result in you missing out on the next progressive step in our life on the Internet.
Frankly, the way I see it is developers win, Facebook wins, and users win, even though the name “Open Graph” is a bit misleading since its not really open at all. Facebook totally controls it.
Developers win because they have the opportunity to use information about users in ways never possible before. Facebook wins because it needs Open Graph to grow its user base. IT seems to me Facebook is not far from targeting users with ads specific to their preferences and competing with Google to take over the world. And users win because they become truly tied into today's “social revolution.”
Does Facebook's new Open Graph concern you? If so, Why? If not, Why not?
