Facebook announced that it is planning to roll out a new Facebook subscribe button plugin for all websites. The plugin will allow a website’s visitors a one-click way to begin following all of the news from an individual reporter, public figure, politician, celebrity, or anyone else who wants to post public updates via their Facebook user profile. What it did not announce, however, is when the Facebook subscribe button for websites would be made available.
Facebook Subscribe Button for Websites | Facebook’s statement
“We will soon launch the Subscribe plugin, an extension of the Subscribe button, that publishers and other developers can add to their web sites to make it easy for people to connect to reporters and public figures in one click. We have no further details to share at this time.” http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2011/12/07/facebook-to-launch-a-subscribe-button-for-websites-imminently/
After the F8 Conference this year, Facebook revealed its Subscription button, which gave users a Twitter-like functionality to the social networking service. It introduced one-way friendships where a user could follow someone, like a public figure, celebrity, politician, journalist, etc., without that person having to “friend” the subscriber in return.
In a direct effort to compete against Twitter, the Facebook subscribe button for websites will allow publishers will be able to add the button to their websites, much like they do with the Twitter “follow” button today, allowing users one-click access to a person’s public updates. The updates from that person will then begin appearing in the subscriber’s News Feed, alongside updates from friends and the pages the user had previously “liked.”
Facebook says that it will debut the new social plugin “imminently”, suggesting the company could announce details of the widget later today or sooner rather than later.
What do you think of the Facebook Subscribe button for websites; will you put it on your blog?