f8 Highlights
Yesterday, Facebook hosted its f8 conference to announce many of the changes it’s going to make in an effort to stave off competition from Google and Twitter. You may have already tuned into f8 yesterday, but if not, don’t fret! We watched and took some notes for you.
Believe me, there was a lot to take in as keynote speakers broke down new contracts with Spotify and Netflix, and hosts later went on to interview engineers that spoke of all night Facebook parties juiced on Red Bulls while constructing old-school arcade games. Even Adam Sandberg came out an joked a little bit, loosening Mark Zuckerberg up enough to make him almost seem at ease in front of large crowds.
Here are some of the f8 highlights that affect the Facebook platform on the whole.
f8 Highlights | What to Expect
VatorNews’ article on the f8 highlights breaks down most of the lusted after information and new updates revealed at the conference:
Facebook Ticker
Perhaps most noticable to the Facebook faithful is the addition of an updated News Feed which takes into account the frequency with which each user visits the site and accordingly updates said user’s news either by “most relevant” or “most recent.” And finally, we’ve seen the addition of a News Ticker scrolling on the right-hand side of each user’s page, giving a constant feed of the most-recent Friends’ activity.
Facebook Timeline
But these changes are nothing compared to what’s coming. The most profound development [of the f8 highlights], which has yet to be implemented, was shown during Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s presentation during the F8 conference proper. This is the new Timeline feature, which arranges Facebook updates into a more transparent “life story” than the previous model.
The Timeline is a natural extension of a given user’s profile as it exists now, showing Facebook activity sequentially. However, like the updated New Feed, this newer profile model also gives greater emphasis to the most recent and the most “important” activity. Events further in the user’s past may disappear from the Timeline altogether, allowing the user’s past to be represented by those events most important to the overall picture. …Or that’s the idea, anyway.
The new Facebook Timeline may give other social media “timeline” platforms like Memolane a run for their money.
Facebook Music
Another important Facebook development and [one of the f8 highlights] was the projected integration of online music and film streaming services into the social networking paradigm. These changes will be implemented in conjunction with online music providers Spotify, MOG, Vevo, Turntable.fm, Slacker, Rdio and Soundcloud, and online movie providers Netflix and Hulu.
Soon, Facebook users will be able to see what music and films their friends are consuming and rather than simply liking said music or film, they can immediately plug in and start enjoying along with them.
Still other developments include a new approach to apps, which work outside Facebook functionality while still updating to users’ Facebook pages. One example of this new kind of “social app” is a projected jogging app that functions out of the user’s mobile phone but updates Facebook in real time via a GPS system.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg was still awkward as ever on stage, however he did manage to clean up his speech and presence. One of the f8 highlights that no one is sure to forget about for some time was definitely Andy Samburg’s great impersonation of Mr. Zuckerberg. Needless to say this is going to be an interesting year from what I could tell from the f8 highlights.
If you enjoyed reading “f8 Hightlights,” then check out more social media updates at your one stop spot for everything social media, BlackBoxSocialMedia.
Hey Mark, why can’t I become one like you, I do not know anything about business but i do envy people who can do it??? I live in Australia and read an article on yahoo yesterday that Australian will become future millionaire in the next decade….