Recently, at the Facebook F8 conference, it was announced that Facebook would be releasing a new social media “plug-in” called the Open Graph and will release protocol in order for websites to become integrated into the social graph. Including the Open Graph protocol in a website will allow users to “Like” the page which will then be processed by Facebook and be included in the user’s profile and activity/news feed.
Open Graph is designed for websites that represent profiles of real-life objects, like sports teams, restaurants, celebrities, and movies. Once a website becomes a node in the Open Graph, users will be able to link to it, which will then be shared with the user’s friends. Those connections will be very important as the page will now be shown all around Facebook, in a rich content, not just plain text. These connections are similar to how Facebook pages work now. The main difference is that following the connection will lead the user outside of Facebook, and not be constricted like Facebook pages on content.
Open Graph has only just been released and may change. For more information visit here.
Google has recently released a new project in their Labs known as Google Follow Finder. The main purpose of this tool is to help users find more Tweeps to expand their network.
The tool is actually very easy to use. All you need to do is enter a Twitter username and hit “Search”. Follow Finder will then display users with similar followers and users that entered username might be interested in following based on “following” and “follower” lists.
And to connect with those displayed is easy. All one needs to do is click the Follow button, log in, and they will be added. Follow Finder is taking advantage of the new @anywhere framework recently released by Twitter. The framework makes the entire tool possible by letting Follow Finder get dynamic information about the entered username.
To check out the tool go to http://www.followfinder.googlelabs.com
In order to communicate effectively to all of one’s social networking friends, one would need to have a profile on each social site and then post to each one of those separately. One would also have to check each profile separately to get any answers, questions, or comments at each site. This process is very time-consuming and keeping track of every site is a nightmare.
Ideas have come up about decentralizing social networks. Technology has already surfaced to do this; it is called Salmon. What Salmon does is rather simple. Suppose Facebook and Twitter implemented Salmon. If person A posts a tweet on Twitter, person B could respond to it from Facebook, without even having a Twitter account. Person A could then respond to that post from Twitter and person B would see it in their Facebook. The same decentralization process happened to email. Everyone has email accounts on different sites like Gmail or Hotmail. Person A can send an email from a Gmail account to person B with a Hotmail account without person A having to worry about having a Hotmail account.
What could this mean for the future of businesses in social networking? First, it would increase the ease of communication between itself and clients/customers. However, a business would still have to have an account in order to have a tangible presence on each social networking site. Salmon just makes it easier to contact people on all of them, without having to worry about signing into a different account every time. This increase in communication could lead to a better following and even better conversion rates as people would see the company has a strong presence in the social media world.
Recently, at the Facebook F8 conference, it was announced that Facebook would be releasing a new social media “plug-in” called the Open Graph and will release protocol in order for websites to become integrated into the social graph. Including the Open Graph protocol in a website will allow users to “Like” the page which will then be processed by Facebook and be included in the user’s profile and activity/news feed.