Facebook shows off new features at f8 (photos)
The almost-year Facebook f8 (pronounced "fate") Conference is held for developers, entrepreneurs, and innovators who want to build a more social Web. The all-day event features Facebook engineers and product teams with keynotes and session tracks that highlight the company’s new tools along with best practices for third-party developers and partners. Watch the live stream or follow live blogging coverage from CNET News.
As usual Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg opens the show. Oh wait. That isn't Mark Zuckerberg. It's Andy Sandberg of SNL fame doing his Zuckerman impression.
Photos: James Martin, CNET News
Sandberg doing a sketch.
The real Mark Zuckerman takes over.
Zuckerman opens up by saying "the last 5 years of social networking have been about getting people signed up, but now, most people see social networks as a tool to stay connected every day."
Facebook hit a new milestone last week: In a single day, half a billion people used it..
He introduces Timeline which will be Facebook's updated profile. It has 3 pieces: All your stories, all your apps, and a new way to express who you are.
An early Zuckerberg Facebook page.
Zuckerberg says the biggest challenge was figuring out how to put all of it on one page.
Zuckerberg shows how Timeline works with photos.
The Ticker is the lightweight stream of friend activity that now sits in the upper right hand corner.
It's no longer allowed for an app to pop up and interrupt you.
Zuckerman talks about Open Graph, new social apps that are meant to help you discover what your friends are currently doing, beyond just the fact that they just Liked something. Facebook wants developers to do more than just use the Liked verb (and more than the Read, Watched, and Listened verbs too).
The permissions dialogue has been changed completely. so you can see what the app intends to do with a Timeline preview, and you can control who sees it.
You can watch videos with your friends.
You can listen to music with your friends - clicking a button will allow you and your friends to listen to a song together. On the Spotify app, users can update their profiles with what and who they’re listening to as well as playlists. But Spotify won’t ask you every time, reducing the number of annoying pop-up messages.
Zuckerberg says the future of music shouldn't be about blocking you from music you've bought. Should be about helping you discover new music through your friends via the Open Graph.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings takes the stage to announce that Netflix will be available through Facebook.
Zuckerberg's talks about how Netflix and other services such as Hulu, IMDB, DirectTV, DailyMotion, Ina, FLixster, Blockbuster, Cinemur, Izlesene, Into_Now, and others. It works with social news, so you can see what your friends are reading.
You can share apps with your friends such as this Nike+ record of your daily jog.
Facebook CTO Bret Taylor talks about Open Graph. He shows how people discover new music from their friends. Plus, sharing food they're making leading to someone buying food while at a grocery store.
Developers get to pick how items shared to the timeline look, then add the "share to timeline" button.