open graph

Animoto turns Facebook photos into 'Best of 2012' videos

Animoto, the app that turns Facebook photos into slideshow videos, added a highlight reel feature today that lets users create videos based on their most popular photos of the year.

The magic behind the highlight reel is Facebook's Open Graph. Animoto pulls the photos and captions from your profile -- these include ones you posted and those you're tagged in -- based on how many times your friends commented or liked them, or how many people were tagged in it. The videos are set to music and can include text.

The result, Animoto CEO Brad Jefferson said, is … Read more

Facebook shows off its musical app chops

Showing off its ability to draw music lovers to music apps on its Open Graph, Facebook revealed today that its users have played 62.6 million songs 22 billion times in the last 13 months.

Facebook posted the stats of six music apps on the platform's Open Graph, which lets third-party companies build applications for Facebook. Since the graph launched in September 2011, these apps have seen a lot of social referrals, according to Facebook. The company is reminding developers that it has the ability to put apps in front of users who then share them with their friends, … Read more

Facebook: 1 billion 'things' shared via Open Graph daily

There was one big thing that was missed in all the hype surrounding Facebook's earnings report today: Open Graph. Announced at f8 2011, the new class of social apps is responsible for all the "frictionless sharing" you've been seeing on the social network lately. During the investors call today, Facebook co-founder and CEO Zuckerberg unveiled that every day, almost 1 billion pieces of content are shared on Facebook via Open Graph.

I would estimate this is coming from some 5,000 Open Graph apps (back in March, Facebook had 3,000). Because Open Graph essentially means … Read more

Facebook's Trending Articles finds foes among the clutter

Facebook's new "Trending Articles" feature, which it's been testing for the last few weeks, is already finding critics complaining about clutter in their News Feeds.

The new feature, which adds links to articles that friends have read in their News Feed, is part of a broader effort by Facebook to create what it calls "frictionless" sharing. Media companies that have created apps using the feature include Yahoo and The Guardian, among others.

Mingled among posts from friends about their kids accomplishments or their latest vacation adventures, Facebook is adding links to articles that those … Read more

Facebook's Timeline spells success for apps

A couple of months ago, most people had no idea what Viddy was. Since getting its start in April 2011, this app -- which is like Instagram but for video -- tallied 60,000 monthly active users. Then, in February, Viddy launched its Facebook Timeline app and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

Now Viddy has more than 1.7 million monthly active users and averages about 300,000 new registered users per day. Since its Timeline launch, there have been more than 15 million interactions with Viddy content on Facebook. Also, for the first time ever, it's … Read more

Facebook inserts 'listen' button on musicians' pages

The ways to listen to music on Facebook continue to grow. The social network launched a "listen" button on music artists' pages today.

On the top right corner between the "like" and "message" buttons on musicians' fan pages, users can click "listen" and be guided to songs on any of the music streaming services the user has signed up for, such as Spotify and Rdio.

This is different than the "listen with" buttons users can click when they see what their friends are listening too; those buttons were created by … Read more

Facebook adds 12 media apps to its Timeline roster

Love 'em or hate 'em, Facebook's timeline apps seem to be here to stay.

After news yesterday of Open Graph driving astounding amounts of traffic, Facebook announced today that 12 more media properties would be adding apps to Facebook's timeline.

"As media organizations build new timeline apps, initial results show significant increases in traffic and engagement, while allowing media sites to reach new--often younger--demographics," Facebook Director of Media Partnerships Justin Osofsky said in a statement.

The new apps include Buzzfeed, CBS Local: Los Angeles and New York, CMT, The Daily Show, GetGlue, Huffington Post, Mashable, MSNBC.… Read more

Open Graph boosts traffic to Facebook Timeline apps

After less than a month in the wild, Open Graph is already a huge source of traffic and engagement for Facebook Timeline apps.

Facebook revealed last fall that it would be expanding its lexicon beyond the "like" with Open Graph, which helps third-party publishers link their content with the social network and allows users to see what friends are doing on other sites and join in. Although it's only been a few weeks since additional verbs like eating, buying, and listening to began appearing in earnest, the social network is pleased with the early results.

Facebook today … Read more

The 404 979: Where court is now in session (podcast)

Jeff almost didn't make it out of court this morning to be on the show, but he squirms out of Lady Justice's grasp just in time to join us, maybe with a few minutes in between to update his Facebook.

We'll talk today about Facebook's Timeline feature coming to a profile near you (whether you like it or not), last night's tech-heavy State of the Union Address, and who's responsible for the state of John Kerry's face.

Obama's made lots of promises in his speech this year, not the least of which is a pledge to give more technology training to Americans looking to expand their workforce skills.

He also mentioned an end to digital piracy and will host a Google+ video hangout on January 30 with questions accepted through the White House YouTube channel.… Read more