The ‘Open Graph’
May 13th, 2010The ‘Open Graph’
According to Zuckerberg, Facebook’s latest initiative will put “people at the center of the web” by connecting them with sites like Pandora, an Internet radio service, Yelp, a local business review and referral network, and content-driven sites like CNN and IMDB, the Internet Movie Database. All it takes to make these connections is clicking a “like” button on a site when users are logged in to Facebook. Anyone with a Facebook account can visit Pandora, for example, and see what songs their friends are listening to, or check CNN to read stories their friends liked. The benefits to partner sites that enable these “like” buttons are obvious: increased traffic from recommendations across Facebook communities. And, according to Wharton experts, Facebook benefits by becoming the center of what’s known as the “social web,” where status — and any potential monetization — is based on personal connections and recommendations rather than search engine results.
Unlike the bumpy Beacon launch, Facebook argues that it has found the right balance between being useful to customers, linking together social profiles and gathering data that could be valuable to advertisers. Facebook’s Open Graph approach features plugins that can be included on any site so users can “like” or recommend content, and personal data is controlled by Facebook and not shared with the partner site. However, a user’s recommendations show up as public information on their Facebook profiles. Users can change their privacy settings to determine which recommendations are visible. Nonetheless, critics such as privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) say Facebook makes it hard for users to restrict the information they cheap throwback nfl-football jerseys,nba jerseys,nhl-hockey jerseysmlb jerseys from china,wholesale cheap jerseys shop for saleshare.
“Facebook’s privacy settings are very confusing,” says Peter Fader, a marketing professor at Wharton. “And the fact that Facebook changes frequently makes it worse. Due to [the potential for] monetization, Facebook prefers users opt out. It’s better for the user [to be able to] opt in. The controls could be much clearer.”
Experts at Wharton are quick to note that, in the past, Facebook has been able to push features and change privacy settings without much impact on the site’s meteoric growth. While some bloggers and commentators closed their Facebook accounts in response to the recent changes, Facebook’s continued expansion makes it unlikely these protests will have much impact on the which welcomes antiques and fine arts but not coins, stamps or chanel jewelry.company. “It’s doubtful whether a user boycott would be successful,” notes Kendall Whitehouse, director ravens jersey are always in fashion.of new media at Wharton. “If you managed to get a million people to close their accounts — which would be quite a feat — that only represents one-quarter of one percent of Facebook’s user base” and would be unlikely to compel the company to change direction, he says.