Facebook Archives - Page 8 of 30 - Stay N Alive

Category: Facebook

"Anything You Say Can and Will Be Used Against You"

Posted on by jessestay

I’ve said numerous times that when you put something on the web, you should always assume that data is public, for the world to see. Up until now, Facebook was the exception – Facebook enabled privacy controls, enabling users to, while assuming their data could be public, add a layer of protection and assurance to that data since it would be stored in a silo’d environment. All that changed, in an incredibly significant way yesterday. At Facebook’s F8 developers conference, they announced a new way of integrating with the Facebook network, which would basically incorporate websites that choose to do so to become an instant part of the Facebook network. Now, not only will your Facebook profile follow you as you visit Facebook.com, but your Facebook profile will follow you from website to website, following you and bringing your friends with you throughout the entire internet. Facebook essentially just became the new Internet, which means my rules above now apply to Facebook as much as any website out there.

What you need to watch out for

Before it is assumed that I’m spreading a bunch of FUD, I want to be clear that the same privacy rules apply to the websites you visit as do on Facebook.com.  You might have noticed a new message as you log in asking you to opt out if you don’t want your information shared with these websites.  If you really have a concern you will want to look at these settings and change them.  However, even if you keep the information on, there are still requirements that will force website owners to get you to log in to Facebook before they obtain information such as your friend data or other more private information.  There is still some control.

What you do need to watch out for however is that what you put into Facebook.com could very well become a part of any participating website out there.  The same rules for the web now apply to Facebook.  If you don’t want others to know about it, don’t share it on Facebook!  I believe Facebook is anticipating that the world is becoming a much more open and forgiving place though – personally, I agree.  I call this the “small community effect”.  Basically, in a small community everyone knows who you are.  You all know each others strengths and weaknesses, and you’re able to help each other out because of that.  You’re able to talk, and everyone hears.  If you want out, just leave the community!

Here’s an example: I have many friends on Facebook that work for Facebook, Inc. and Twitter, Inc.  I do see private information all the time that isn’t meant for public consumption.  However, the minute I share that information to those it was not intended for I break that trust relationship with my friends, and all they need to do is unfriend me.  Now I no longer have a trusted relationship and my ties (and friendships) are broken.  When you have a small community there is a responsibility to trust one another, and it’s a much stronger bond than an anonymous internet.

Why This is a Good Thing

The internet just became a whole lot less anonymous than before.  It sounds scary, but it really isn’t.  When you are forced to identify yourself (and these identities will become more and more real as technology surrounding identity advances), you are forced to be real.  You won’t do things you would normally do when people didin’t know your name.  In a less anonymous internet it’s the anonymous people you have to worry about, and they are the ones that get forced to wear the Scarlet Letters when they are discovered.

Here’s the real advantage: now, rather than searching and hoping to find the right answers to your questions, answers will be delivered to you without you even having to ask.  You’ll be visiting your favorite brand’s website, and you’ll be able to see exactly what your friends that use that brand also like.  You’ll be pointed to other important and interesting things.  You could be watching TV and see what show all your friends are watching – often that can be much more interesting than having to just randomly pick what you aren’t quite sure would be good.  Not only that, but you have the opportunity to chat, communicate, and collaborate about these things that you like.

Facebook is encouraging us to be Social!  I think it’s time we all break out of our shells and take these real life relationships around the world and do something with them.  I’m okay with giving up a little information for that cause.  In the end social networking is about building real life relationships.  What a better way than to do that all over the web, wherever you go?

I’m going to spend some time over the next few days going over the details of Facebook’s new OpenGraph, what it is, and how it works (in a way you can understand).  I’d also like to compare it to Google’s SocialGraph API, a very similar API to what Facebook is doing.  I’d like to cover where the prior arts are, where Facebook could have done better (as in distribution and a less centralized architecture), and why I think they went the way they did.

In the end I think it’s okay to be at peace with this.  Everyone I’ve spoken to at Facebook intends to be good with this information.  Their entire purpose is to respect your privacy, while making the web a whole lot less anonymous and a whole lot more social.  So get on and be social!  Get on and share some things.  That’s a good thing!

The Butterflies are "All Around Us" – My Interview With Paul Buchheit, CoFounder of FriendFeed

Posted on by jessestay

I had the opportunity to spend a brief few minutes with Paul Buchheit, co-creator of FriendFeed.com, which was recently acquired by Facebook end of last year.  In our interview, I asked Paul where “the Butterfly” was that was mentioned by him shortly after the acquisition (you can read more about that here).  Paul seemed much more enthusiastic than Bret Taylor was when I asked him in the Press Conference earlier in the day.  In short: the butterfly is not one, but multiple butterflies that permeate both FriendFeed and the Facebook Platform, and will continue to grow.

In conversation after the interview, Paul mentioned while not as much resources were put into FriendFeed as before, he was still releasing updates and continuing to do so.  He even hinted at the potential for better Facebook integration now that the 24 hour storage limit has been lifted from the Facebook Platform. (He mentioned that was the biggest impact on them not integrating Facebook Connect more, and as a developer, I agree)  Paul reminded me that they’re still releasing features (the most recent being just a few weeks ago), and their move to the new Facebook-hosted servers which they’re currently hosted on.

When asked which developer platform to develop for, Paul’s answer was to look at your needs.  Facebook Platform of course has over 400+ million users, while with FriendFeed you may get some added aggregation capabilities you wouldn’t get from Facebook.  You could tell by his voice that he still has a deep love for FriendFeed, and seemed to have no intentions to abandon it.  In fact, his entire presentation (you can watch here – click on “previous sessions” on the right) was around the Tornado Framework which FriendFeed is based on, something Facebook doesn’t really have intention on integrating into their own environment.

So, it would appear, that the butterflies he mentioned earlier are none other than the Open Graph API, the move from centralized data silos, to an entire web of meta-linked data which is unreliant on any one source to get at the data.  The butterfly that has emerged has transformed into many, which anyone, anywhere on the web can gain access.

The full interview can be found on my Cinch page – you can listen to it below:

http://www.cinchcast.com/cinchplayerext.swf

Facebook Kills the Storage Limit

Posted on by jessestay

Today at Facebook’s F8 developer’s conference Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be adapting their policy surrounding the length of time developers can store data taken from the Facebook API on their own servers.  Very soon, the infamous, “store for only 24 hours” limit will no longer be, as developers will be able to store data indefinitely.

Previously, developers were only allowed to store data taken from the Facebook API for 24 hours at a time.  The only data that could be stored longer than this were specific user, photo, event, and other similar IDs, from which developers were required to make API calls back to Facebook to receive data about those objects.  This was a common complaint amongst developers (including myself), causing bandwidth costs and much more effort on the part of a developer (and lack ability to be innovative with that data).

It’s great to hear Facebook opening up on this front.  Stay tuned and I’ll be updating this blog as more news unfolds.

I’m a Dummy! My Next, and Third Book

Posted on by jessestay

It’s been 2 years since the release of my second book, FBML Essentials, and everyone keeps asking me when I’m going to write my next.  I admit I’m a little addicted – it’s why I write on this blog.  I hated writing for others in High School and College, but since I started writing for myself I have really gained a sincere appreciation for writing.  Once I wrote my first book, I’m on Facebook–Now What??? with Jason Alba, I was addicted.  I love writing!  That’s why I’m proud to announce that I have signed an agreement with Wiley to write Facebook Application Development For Dummies.

What will it be about?  To tell you the truth, I’m still working that out.  My thought is to keep this one extremely simple.  I want it to be so simple even marketers and brand managers can learn at least a few ways to integrate Facebook Connect on their own websites, or find ways to integrate their brand straight into Facebook.  I’d like to hear from you though – what would you like to learn about Facebook Application Development?  What would you like to learn about the Facebook Platform?

I’m honored to be working with Wiley in this effort.  They are my biggest publisher yet, and from my dealings with them thus far they are going to be a joy to work with.  My wife has agreed to not see me for the next 6-9 months (I love you honey!), and I’m still keeping my day job and running SocialToo.  Yes, I’m crazy.  I think in the end though, based on my interactions with each of you, we need a completely simple instruction on how to get started with the Facebook Platform and what it means for developers and brands.  My hope is that with the time I spend on this book I might be able to benefit each of you in getting started with this incredible platform.

Facebook Application Development For Dummies will go to print some time at the end of this year, and, having learned from my last 2 books, you can bet this book will be very up to date and will have ways of remaining up to date long from its publish date.  Tell me what you want it to include!

I’ll be at Facebook’s F8 developers conference tomorrow (I’ll be one of the only guys with a FriendFeed T-Shirt on) – come look for me!  The first 4 people to mention this post to me at the conference get a free, signed copy of FBML Essentials.

In the meantime, be sure to become a fan of FBML Essentials and I’m on Facebook–Now What??? on Facebook, subscribe to this blog, and I’ll be sure you get updated when we have a home for my new book.

Facebook to Launch SideWiki-like Recommendation System for Websites

Posted on by jessestay

On Saturday I broke news of a few specific XFBML tags Facebook will be releasing as part of its OpenGraph API, as revealed by their open source Javascript Client libraries.  I held back one announcement that I think is almost just as interesting as their Insights for websites, or the SocialBar, which will provide Meebo-like functionality for Facebook on any website (I think it’s no coincidence Meebo, Google, and Yahoo announced XAuth shortly after I wrote that post).  Facebook, in conjunction with F8, is getting ready to launch “fb:recommendations”, a tag which enables users to provide recommendations to other Facebook users on any OpenGraph-enabled website.

Currently in Facebook’s open source Javascript client libraries, the tag can be placed on any website, and, according to the check in for the code on Github, something like this:





“should be replaced by an iframe showing recommendations for the abc website.”  Rendering the code currently just displays an iframe with the Facebook.com website in the frame.  I am assuming when they turn it on to the world that will render something completely different.


If my theories (and a few sources close to Facebook) are correct, Facebook will soon be releasing the ability for any Facebook user to provide recommendations and advice on any website that integrates the recommendations widget.  Think Google Sidewiki, but at the discretion of each website.  The functionality I am guessing will work similar to that of Foursquare’s “Tips” feature.


What makes this feature even more interesting is what this could bring if some of the rumors of GeoLocation being launched are true.  Is this just a sidewiki feature, or could Facebook be getting ready to launch a Geolocation feature, enabling “Recommendations” that go beyond just websites into real-life locations and places?


Be sure to read more about FBML, including a very beginner lesson on XFBML, in my book, FBML Essentials.

	


	





	

		
More "Insights" on the Facebook Open Graph API Surface
			

				Posted on  by jessestay			

			


	
	

		
With Facebook’s F8 Developer’s conference right around the corner, there is a flurry of activity happening as the Facebook team rushes to prepare for many launches at the Conference.  While I know more than I am saying, there is some evidence in plain view, open for all that we know for sure will be launched at the conference which you should prepare for.  Specifically, I’ve already shared information about Facebook’s  XFBML tag to enable any website on the web to be “liked” and shared amongst a user’s friends.  While not currently functional, this information was made clear in Facebook’s Open Source Javascript Client libraries available here on their GitHub open source repository (and available to all).  There is much more those libraries reveal though (some which have been there for months), hinting at what could very well become a “Facebook-less” connection to the entire web, making it much less necessary to go back and forth between the Facebook.com website to interact with Facebook on a day-to-day basis.  Here is what we know:




There will be a tag that website administrators and developers can stick onto any website that enables a live stream of just that website’s activity on Facebook.  According to the check in on GitHub, the tag accepts the following parameters:




- site (string): mandatory, site url (ie : facebook.com)
- activities (int): number of activities to display.
- width
- height
- header (boolean): indicates if the header should be displayed or not.




Assuming I understand it right, if you use the sample from the GitHub check in, code like the following would display an activity stream for all posts to Facebook from the CNN.com website:




 and 


It’s quite unclear what these are going to do exactly.  One has to expect it is something like the Meebo bar, which puts a bar at the bottom of any Connect (or Open Graph API) enabled website.  The two seem to work together, and, from the code, the fb:connectBar tag seems to prompt each visitor with text that says,


“Hi {firstName}. {siteName} is using  to personalize your experience.”


There is an option to click to learn more.  My guess is that  is just a way for website owners to spread more word about Facebook Connect to their visitors.  I’m assuming  uses  as part of the bar website owners place at the bottom (or elsewhere) of their website.  Right now it seems the way to implement is to just place “” or “” in your website somewhere after calling the Facebook Javascript libraries.


Insights for Websites


Perhaps the most intriguing part of the  and  tags is that they both make a call to a new API method, FB.impression.  The interesting call in the Open Source Client libraries source code is:




FB.provide('Insights',{impression:function(e,a){var b=FB.guid(),g="//ah8.facebook.com/impression.php/"+b+"/",c=new Image(1,1),f=[];if(!e.api_key&&FB._apikey)e.api_key=FB._apikey;for(var d in e)f.push(encodeURIComponent(d)+'='+encodeURIComponent(e[d]));g+='?'+f.join('&');if(a)c.onload=a;c.src=g;}});




In the summary for the check in on Github, they state, “Add new method – FB.impression – for pixel-based impression tracking.”  So, based on that, it would seem that whether released at F8 or not, there may be an Insights component to this OpenGraph API released.  Insights is the product used by Fan Page owners on Facebook to track activity on Facebook Pages.  Ideally, by enabling the above tags, it could enable website owners to gain added social graph data in addition to impressions, visits, and page views for each user that visits their website, including demographics, ages, nationalities, and even names of users.  That would be a very powerful statistics engine, unrivaled by the likes of Google Analytics and other solutions!


While none of the above work outside the Facebook, Inc. Firewall, it is exciting to know they could be coming.  My expectation is that on or around F8, Facebook should turn on the backend code that powers these, and then, the OpenGraph API will be available for all.  While this stuff is all very powerful, I can’t help but wonder if this is the tip of the iceberg.  None of this encompasses open standards of any kind, yet David Recordon and the Open Standards team at Facebook seem to still be preaching “open”.  I’m assuming there will be something very open and distributed, unreliant on Facebook alone, about all of this coming up this F8.  I can’t wait to see what happens.  Keep watching here, as there is even more out there in the open surrounding the Facebook API that I think is pretty cool.


If you’re coming to F8 on Wednesday, come by and say hi to me!

	


	





	

		
The Coolest Thing I Saw at Chirp? It Wasn’t the Twitter Platform
			

				Posted on  by jessestay			

			


	
	

		
Amongst all the amazing things being launched at Twitter’s Chirp developer conference: @anywhere, User Streams, New developer Terms, Ad Platform Announcements, and more, nothing truly got me excited in a way that said, “this is the future”.  True, User Streams will save me thousands.  @anywhere is very convenient.  None of them are “change the world” breakthroughs though.  Let’s face it – Twitter, with the exception of real-time (until next week), is playing catch up with Facebook.  However, there was one thing that caught my eye as “game changing”.  That was today, when Loic Le Meur of Seesmic introduced to me his plugin platform for Seesmic desktop.  Here’s what it does:


Basically, Seesmic has enabled an entire Silverlight-based platform for developers to completely customize the entire experience of the Seesmic desktop.  From the streams, to being able to integrate your own photo service, to enabling link parsing and shortening in your own way, to even altering and integrating with the search box, developers have full control of the entire desktop environment for customizing not just your Twitter experience, but your Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, or even open environments like Status.net and any environment you choose.  Loic talked to me about a potential Youtube client targeted towards just viewing and finding Youtube videos through the browser.


The great thing is that this is all user-targeted.  Each install is packageable in developers’ or brands’ own skin, in whatever logos or colors you like.  Developers can even specify what plugins get installed as part of the package.  Once the user downloads the initial install, users can then download and modify additional plugins to customize it for their own experience.  The entire experience is win-win for both developers and users!


In one fell swoop, Seesmic has gone from being a desktop client for Twitter, to an entire platform that not only encompasses Twitter, but also Facebook, and potentially Myspace, LinkedIn, Youtube, Status.net, and more.  This is the “core” I was talking about last week, and Loic has embodied the spirit of it all.  I can’t wait to see what developers do with this, and probably in close tie with Kynetx, it’s the most amazing thing I’ve seen since the Facebook Platform launch.


Developers can get started at http://platform.seesmic.com.  The platform is based on Microsoft Silverlight.  Don’t like Silverlight? Write your own environment (Google Gadgets?) as a plugin for developers to write for!  This is amazing stuff – I’m so excited to see what happens, and when we’ll all be meeting for the first Seesmic Conference for developers.


Wanna see it in action?  Check out Scoble’s interview with Seesmic founder, Loic Le Meur here.

	


	





	

		
What is Your Core?
			

				Posted on  by jessestay			

			


	
	

		
In a typical Lego set, there is a core set of building blocks that make up the core of the object you are building.  My son just got a new Star Wars Tie fighter Lego set.  It relies on a few common objects, such as little flat Legos you might see in other sets, but overall, what you would see in this set would be much different than the core of Legos you would see in, say, a set to build a House, or even my 2 year old’s set of Duplos which builds just very simple objects geared towards people his age.  For a house set you will see more block-like structures.  For a Robot you may see more objects with holes in them, to accommodate for axles and gears.  For a plane you may see more flat structures for things like wings and a skinnier body.  In the end, you’re trying to build one core, unique object that is different than any of the other objects around it.


Too often I think entrepreneurs struggle to find out what their core is.  Social Networks should be ubiquitous.  Real time should be ubiquitous.  Open Standards should be ubiquitous. Search should be ubiquitous.  There are already companies out there that have these things as their core.  They’re the experts.  I think entrepreneurs and developers often get stuck (myself included) in this rut of fixing things the experts are already good at, rather than finding something new and innovative they can take ownership at.


There’s already a T-Shirt out there that says “Twitter destroyed my market segment, and all I got was this lousy T-shirt”.  Well, the reason that occurs is because developers are building core blocks that are already part of the Twitter core.  They are building something, the cockpit, the engine, the wheels, that were already destined to be replaced in the original scheme of things.  We developers like to see, and fix, the big picture – I know because I’m in the same boat (or ship?).  However, I think we need to be thinking bigger.  We need to be thinking about what our core is, not what’s missing from others’ cores.


When we talk about “filling holes”, I think the best position to be in is where others are filling the holes that you create.  You own the core that includes the missing parts.  The propellers of Twitter should be added to your core to make your airplane fly.  The Jet Engines of Facebook should be added to your core project to push it forward.  The wheels of Google should be added to your core project to get it off the ground.  But in the end, you still own the airplane.  You have control of the core.  All the other “cores” get to contribute back to your core to make it better.  Heck, you can even take pieces of your core and add it into the other existing cores to complement their space too – the power is you still own your space that way.


As you build new creations, think to yourself, am I contributing to others’ cores, or am I building the core that other cores can add their parts to and make better?  No one should be building another “social network” project.  No one should be building another “search engine” project.  The focus should be on the innovative creations we create, and how other “social networks” and “search engines” can make us better.  It should not be the other way around.


This is the “core” success story of the Building Block Web.  How are you letting Twitter or Facebook or Google make your core project better?

	


	





	

		
Facebook’s Like Button for the Whole Internet – Here’s How it Works
			

				Posted on  by jessestay			

			


	
	

		
Techcrunch today talked about a new “Like Button for the Whole Internet” which Facebook looks to be launching some time soon, and has been tested amongst several developers as they’ve been told.  What they didn’t mention is that you can access the code for this right now in the code to the latest open source Javascript SDK.  While it does not currently work in its current form, it is open for the entire public to see, and has been there for the last few months (along with a few other hints I’ll let you find).


Assuming the source of the new SDK (currently in alpha) remains the same, the XFBML  button can be placed on any website on the internet, and it increments the number of likes when a user clicks on it.  By default it increments the likes for the current page, but there appears to also be the ability to specify a “permalink” attribute, along with a URL to another page.  It’s unclear if that will be changeable in the XFBML tag or not.  Also, a required “node_type” attribute that defaults to “page” can be set.  Lastly, an optional “page_url” can be set.  The XFBML tag loads content from /widgets/like.php (attributes of the XFBML tag get passed as attributes in the URL).  That URL appears to be disabled at the moment.


So it looks like the XFBML tag will look something like the following, and it will be part of Facebook’s widgets architecture:


Also of interest, Facebook has an entire tag library devoted to the new tag, like.js.  You can probably gain a little more info from that.  I can’t wait for them to turn on like.php so we can play with this.


My book, FBML Essentials, may just get a lot more interesting as Facebook prepares for their “OpenGraph API”, enabling any website to become its own Facebook Fan Page across the internet.  This is one of many tags I’ve seen that are very interesting – see if you can look through the code and find anything else that looks interesting like this.  I love being a developer. 🙂

	


	





	

		
Facebook Kills More Spammy Apps With New Policy Changes
			

				Posted on  by jessestay			

			


	
	

		
A common technique used by developers to promote their apps very quickly on Facebook has been to tag all of a user’s friends in a photo.  I’ve complained about this before.  If you visit my Facebook Profile and look at the “photos of Jesse” section you’ll notice a few of these.  They’re usually a single image with a bunch of peoples’ photos, saying something like “people who have visited your profile”, or “your top friends”.  Often they’ll add a link in the comments back to the app to get more installs.  Just now, Facebook announced they’re trying to put an end to this practice with the introduction of new policies to their platform.


The most significant change involves this method of spamming a user’s friends through the photo tagging feature in the API.  Previously, any developer could take a list of a user’s friends without the user’s permission and tag them all on behalf of that user, to get their attention. As of today that’s no more – now developers must explicitely ask the user’s permission for each friend individually before tagging them in a photo on their behalf.  This significantly reduces the potential spamminess of this API call, and I’m sure many people will see much less of this photo spam in their inbox.


The second big change Facebook is enforcing involves the number of spammy wall posts you may be receiving on your Facebook wall.  Right now if you visit my Facebook wall you’ll notice several apps have posted there.  Most of these apps have not been given my permission to do so, but, because I’m friends with the individual that used the app, I’m subject to it sharing to my wall.  Much of this was due to the ability for developers to present a list of multiple friends at the same time that a user could select from and post to their wall.  The app would say something like, “post to 10 friends’ walls and get 10 points towards your garden”, the user would be encouraged to spam their friends, and more spam would appear on the walls of those users.


Now, Facebook is requiring developers to only invite one friend at a time.  No longer will users be able to select from a list of multiple at a time to spam their friends.  Also, users must explicitly have approved the app to publish that entry.  I expect much less spam will result.


Of course, all of this is dependent on Facebook’s enforcement of the measures, but Facebook is known to be pretty good at this.  Even as a developer, I welcome the new rules and the potential of a cleaner Facebook.  Let’s hope this improves the overall environment.