Jul 27

Facebook adds new features to Like button

By Josh Martin Facebook, Social Media View Comments

Facebook has released a new feature for the Like button that will have a HUGE impact for those who’ve added the Like button to their website. Websites can now publish content directly to the news feeds of all the people who’ve clicked the Like button on a webpage.

This update will provide brands that have the Like button embedded within their website the same type of functionality as a Fan Page. For example, let’s say you “like” the movie Avatar on Best Buy’s website. With this new feature, Best Buy can send a news feed story to all the Facebook users who’ve liked Avatar. So, they could post on your news feed about an upcoming DVD special offer or let you know about an extended edition version of the movie. Webpages immediately become two-way communication channels.

Facebook also announced two additional updates for the Like button: commenting for the iFrame version and more robust analytics for optimizing performance. For more information, check out the blog post from Facebook’s Developer Blog.

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Jun 21

How Facebook is taking over the web…one like button at a time [PRESENTATION]

By Josh Martin Facebook, Social Media View Comments

This is the presentation I delivered last week at the Engauge Lunch & Learn.

How Facebook is Taking Over the Web

View more presentations from Josh Martin.
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Apr 22

Facebook announces the Open Graph at f8

By Josh Martin Facebook, Social Media View Comments

Facebook revealed several major changes at yesterday’s f8 Facebook Conference. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off the conference with a bang by announcing the “Open Graph” initiative.

What is the Open Graph? It’s basically taking your connections on Facebook to the next level. On Facebook, you have connections with friends, products, things you like: movies, music, books etc. The Open Graph allows websites and apps share this information to create a massive social graph. Thus, making your web experience more social than ever before.

Facebook has created a set of plugins that websites and apps can implement to make it easy for users to see information from or about their Facebook friends, share things with their friends without leaving a site or going through a time-consuming login process. So, no more Facebook Connect.

Zuckerberg said that several sites are already using the new Open Graph suite of products including CNN, the Washington Post, and IMDB. After the conference, I tested the Open Graph and some of the social plugins on IMDB.

I searched for Tropic Thunder page on IMDB website. When I landed on the Tropic Thunder page on IMDB, I noticed the “Like” button on the right side of the page. I also noticed that 4 other people from Facebook like the movie, but none of my friends have liked the movie as of yet.

I clicked the “Like” button once and that was it – I didn’t have to log-in or do anything but click the “Like” button.

I went back to Facebook to see what happened there and 2 things I noticed:

1) There was an update to my profile and to my friend’s news feed that I like Tropic Thunder.

2) On my profile page under my Movie interests, Tropic Thunder is now linked. So, when you click on Tropic Thunder from my profile – it will take you to the Tropic Thunder IMDB page.

Personally, I’m excited to see how these changes will impact my web experience by making it more social. However, I’m sure the big debate with these changes will have to do with privacy. What do you think about these changes? Do you want your overall web experience to be more social? Or are you more concerned with your privacy?

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