f8

Parsing Facebook's new lexicon (Q&A)

Facebook is expanding its vocabulary.

Recently at f8, Facebook's developer conference, the company introduced a series of action verbs into its social platform. "Read," "Watch," and "Listen," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, were added to help build a "language for how people connect."

The one missing word, of course, was "Buy." That's really why Facebook and its army of content partners from news, publishing, music, and film and TV are rushing to set up shop on the famous platform with 750 million users. The overriding idea is that … Read more

Chicago company sues Facebook over Timeline feature

Facebook's Timeline, the newest and most dramatic change yet to its famous profile pages, hasn't even rolled out publicly yet, but it's already under legal attack.

Timelines.com, a small Chicago based company, filed a trademark-infringement lawsuit yesterday against Facebook. Timelines.com, an online social-scrapbooking company, has been in business since 2008 and is claiming that Facebook's newest platform product could destroy its livelihood.

According to the complaint, which TechCrunch has embedded, the Chicago startup is seeking damages and an immediate injunction to prevent being "rolled over and quite possibly eliminated by the unlawful action … Read more

Facebook's creepy changes: Here's someone who loves them

I want to introduce you to the Cult of the Dependent.

Yes, that might be a fine book title, should any of the world's finest literary agents be reading this. However, I hadn't--until last week--had a personal encounter with one of the cult's members.

The cult offers its members a very particular dependence, couched in a sense of enormous freedom. It is an enormous freedom from news, something that Facebook's charmingly skin-crawling changes announced this week will assist in fostering.

This particular cult member is one of the finest people I know--my friend, George. (Name changed … Read more

Facebook redesigns itself for expansion (roundup)

At its F8 conference, the already massive social network shows off new features intended to work itself ever deeper into the fabric of your life.

Zuckerberg's vision: All Facebook, all the time commentary In the future according to the Facebook CEO, every application would be "social" and, best of all from his point of view, inextricably linked to Facebook's platform. (Posted in Digital Media by Charles Cooper) September 23, 2011 10:49 a.m. PT

Facebook changes creeping out some customers Across the Web, folks have been chiming in on how they feel about Facebook's … Read more

Zuckerberg's vision: All Facebook, all the time

commentary In the news trade, they call it burying the lede, and yesterday the biggest headline out of Facebook's big developer conference was all but ignored amid the understandable fuss made about open graphs, user timelines, and music sharing in real time.

Little surprise, really. What advantage was there for Mark Zuckerberg to wave a red cape in front of his rivals--current or future? After all, the day was chockablock with meaty announcements and there was enough on the docket to give fans and bloggers enough fodder to chew over for now.

But let's step back and consider … Read more

Facebook's colonization of the Web gains steam

About a year ago I wrote about Facebook's growing dominance of the social Web casting a huge shadow over the Internet of people. At that time the service had 500 million users. In his F8 keynote yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg said that as many as 500 million people used Facebook in a single day, with the total Facebook tribe approaching 800 million.

According to Experian Hitwise, Facebook had a 10 percent share of Internet visits in the U.S. for the week ending Sept. 17, followed by Google at 7 percent. Among social networks, Facebook garnered more than 65 percent … Read more

Friday Poll: Is the new Facebook look hot or not?

We knew it was coming. There was no escape. The new Facebook look was unveiled yesterday at the F8 developers conference.

We saw sneak previews of the fresh Timeline and Ticker features that represent a radical departure from the spare white Facebook profiles of the soon-to-be past.

It's kind of like coming home and finding that your spouse has gotten Botox, a hair cut, a new wardrobe, and can't stop talking about the song he's listening to and which Paula Deen recipe is on the dinner menu. It all feels a little surreal.

Eventually, all profiles will go over to Timeline. It has a massive top photo and easy access to all your Facebook updates throughout the years so that you can wallow in that nostalgic moment four years ago when you ate a deep-fried Twinkie at the fair and posted about it.

Ticker will feed real-time updates about the minutiae of your friends' lives onto your profile. Now you'll know who's listening to Celine Dion at any given moment. There will also be more integration of social apps into your profile.

Change is hard. Not even the sight of Mark Zuckerberg's adorable puppy on his Timeline could soften the hearts of some critics. There has been a mixed reaction to the new look and features. Some folks like it, some folks are threatening to run back to the familiarity of MySpace or forward into the unknown of Google+.

Where do you fall on the scale of new Facebook love and hate? Vote in our poll and sound off below.… Read more

Yes, Google really should worry about Facebook

The algorithm is the key to success.

That's how Google replaced Yahoo as the Web's best search engine in 1998. Google became the font of the online world's information by both finding more information online than any other search engine, and by figuring out what of it was the most important to the Web's users. Google algorithmically connected the Web to people.

Facebook, by contrast, has always been about connecting people to each other, but as the the latest version of the Facebook platform illustrates, the company is now about using that information to do what … Read more

Congress must act for U.S. Netflix, Facebook integration

SAN FRANCISCO--If you're a Facebook user eager for Netflix integration, you'll likely have to wait for Congress to act before getting your wish.

It turns out, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said Thursday at F8, Facebook's developers conference here, that of the 45 countries where the troubled movie rentals service is offered, integration with the world's leading social network will be available in 44. Facebook users in the United States won't have access to Netflix.

How could that be, especially given that both Netflix and Facebook are U.S.-based companies that have giant user bases … Read more