Will Facebook Become MySpace? “f8″ is On Its Way.
Note: the f8 features are actually online already, but you have to visit http://f8.facebook.com to see it.
While I might have thought that Facebook Gifts were going to be the end of the ‘book as we know it, something new and more threatening is on the horizon for the site famous for stalking. Actually, for most of you reading this, it’s probably too late.
In about 6 hours from the time I’ve posted this, Facebook will have released something they call “f8.” I was invited to the keynote in San Francisco where they announced it only a couple hours ago, but due to the circumstances (I don’t care that much), I didn’t attend.
But really, the question is, what is f8? Well, in a nutshell, f8 is a platform in which developers can make “widgets” of sorts for Facebook users’ profiles. This can include audio, video, images, and basically whatever else. Remind you of anything?
Well, I guess it’s not that bad. Unlike MySpace, developers for these products on Facebook have to go through their development process to output applications. So far, lots of companies have been jumping on board, and some of them seem pretty good and/or cool.
(Check out some captures: One, Two, Three, Four)
But, again, this could easily mean infiltration by extremely annoying sources (music players, video players embedded in users’ profiles just like Murdoch’s devilish lovechild). I can’t say yet whether or not this means Facebook is on its way out, but I sure hope they’ve made this development process clean for those not wanting much to do with it, because I very well might be one of those people.
For those interested, Facebook has already released a website for f8 development. Photos courtesy of Matt McNamara.
eobanb
delivers a comment:
Fuck closed development platforms.
delivered on May 24, 2007 at 8:55 pm
Pat Owens (via Facebook)
delivers a comment:
From what I understand, you can turn off all of these features as you deem fit in a similar way to the privacy features (i.e. the only people people that are forced to listen to other people's music are the ones who don't block it.)
delivered on May 25, 2007 at 1:15 am
Matt McNamara (via Facebook)
delivers a comment:
I'm at f8 right now, and here's some things that might interest you to know:
Yes, you can imbed audio/video in your profile, but you cannot have them autoplay, even if you tried
You still cannot adjust the "look" of your page. No page themes.
All the content that can appear on your profile page is also cached by Facebook, so there's no way to add logging abilities to see who is on your page, and this also means that Widgets won't, for the most part, slow down your page loading, either.
delivered on May 25, 2007 at 1:37 am
Matt McNamara (via Facebook)
delivers a comment:
Pat: No. There's no way to disable a widget that is on someone else's page.
delivered on May 25, 2007 at 1:37 am
Brian Moore (via Facebook)
delivers a comment:
Matt, if you noticed, I used some of your pics in the post. I'll credit you… do you have a site that you'd like me to point to?
Also, it's funny that you should comment here because it was your pictures popping up on the news feed that reminded me about f8. Hope you're having fun.
(& thanks for the added info)
delivered on May 25, 2007 at 1:40 am
Matt McNamara (via Facebook)
delivers a comment:
Hi Brian. Just credit it to Matt McNamara. It's been a lot of fun here. If you have any other questions, feel free to post here and I'll let you know what I know. Yes, this change is going to change Facebook, but I think it's generally going to be a lot better in the long run. Remember the resistance to Newsfeed? :p
Matt
delivered on May 25, 2007 at 1:48 am
Matt McNamara (via Facebook)
delivers a comment:
Oh, one last technical thing: f8 is the name of the event. The actual change is the "Facebook Platform". A lot of places are going to mix that up, but might as well try to catch some people early.
delivered on May 25, 2007 at 2:58 am
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delivered on November 3, 2007 at 3:56 am