Big announcements from Facebook’s f8 developers conference yesterday. In his best Steve Jobs impersonation, Mark Zuckerberg stood in front of a giant screen and gave a rundown of what’s new.
First off: Timeline. This is where Facebook wants you to capture the most import landmarks in your life (posts, pictures, videos, etc.). Think of it as scrapbooking on the Internet. You can control the privacy settings, but there are grumblings, naturally, about how this might be a one stop shop for identity thieves and stalkers.
The other big news is partnerships. Zuckerberg announced partnerships with streaming services like Spotify and Netflix (not in U.S. for now), which proved to be pretty much in line with what we’ve been reporting. When you post about listening to music or watching a movie, there’s an option that will let your friends join in the experience.
It’s more than just movies and music. By adding apps like Yahoo! News or the Washington Post to your Timeline, you’re supposed to be able to interact with people on a variety of different subjects. From the Guardian: “now [Zuckerberg] wants to go beyond ‘like’; he wants us to ‘read’ and ‘listen’ – to look at stories from newspapers and share in the music your friends enjoy.” Rather than trying to be the biggest banana in the bunch, Facebook plans to be the grocery store that lets you choose which bananas you want.
Zuckerberg also said that there are now 800 million Facebook users. The Guardian reports that number is expected to grow to over a billion within weeks.
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