When Facebook’s “Like” button got massive traction, it became clear that people would respond to engaging with and reacting to simple actions that you take on a daily basis. That’s exactly what Facebook banked on when it launched its Open Graph and Timeline initiatives, which in essence allow apps to share all types of content with any action phrase that they can imagine.

For content publishers and app developers, coming up with new ways to articulate what your friends are doing within their framework in a social setting like Facebook is turning into increased engagement and adoption.

The Open Graph is clearly a massive success, causing apps like Viddy and Instagram to skyrocket in both content engagement as well as user numbers. For example, when I take a photo with Instagram, that action is shared on my Timeline and within the Ticker as “Drew took a photo using Instagram”. By telling you exactly what I’ve done, Facebook is piquing your interest to click and interact.

Facebook continues to illustrate its success with a series of posts on its developers blog, each telling a different story about how a specific app is utilizing the platform and seeing a lift in usage.

Today, Facebook shared the story of Kobo, an e-reader device and app for iOS. By adding Open Graph functionality that mapped to the actions you can take within the app, the experience has become more interactive for those who are fans of Kobo, as well as their friends who follow what they’re up to.

For example, when you’re using Kobo, you can share things like when you’ve started reading a new book, taken a note, highlighted a passage, or finished reading.

You can imagine the type of conversation that happens when you published the fact that you’ve finished a book. People will probably start asking you if you liked it and whether you’d suggest that they read it too. All you had to do was take a simple action within the app and Facebook took care of the rest.

For Kobo, the Open Graph has translated into a 50% increase in traffic and 90% increase in daily registrations since it launched the integration in January. Not bad.

In the same way that Google+ is trying to become a seamless social layer within all of Google’s products, Facebook is becoming the social layer for everything else. This type of social glue is something that’s been lacking for mobile apps that often sit siloed on your device with no way of talking other apps or the world around you.

As Facebook becomes woven into the fabric of every popular app that sees success on iOS and Android platforms, it’s making itself more irreplaceable.

Hey Google, where’s that Google+ API anyway?

In addition to Viddy’s Timeline app going live today on Facebook’s Open Graph platform, the company announced some new partners, including; Foursquare, Nike, The Onion, VEVO, Fandango, Viddy, Endomondo, and RootMusic.

The company says that since Timeline was made publicly available to its users, nearly 3,000 apps have been launched. Regarding how these apps are doing, Facebook likes to share stats now and then on its progress, with its latest partners seeing traffic increases up to 77%:

- Pinterest grew its daily active Facebook user base by 60%
- Goodreads increased daily traffic by 77%
- Pose saw 5X growth in signups on its website and mobile app.

The Timeline integration for apps has been pretty well received by its users who can now group pieces of content generated by an app into one place on their profile:

As well as grouping these items together, the content will be placed on the user’s Timeline to show exactly when the action was taken. This is perfect for foursquare which lets you check-in to locations and lends itself perfectly to the Timeline concept.

VEVO is an interesting partner to watch, as there have been rumors that the music video site would dump its current partner, YouTube, for Facebook’s video platform.

It appears that a lot of the apps from well-known publishers are seeing instant increases in engagement for their content, including more shares and views thanks to Open Graph.

Facebook is hanging out at SXSW today and showing off some of its new Open Graph partners at its office in Austin. One of them is Viddy, which we referred to as the “Instagram for video” when it launched in April last year. With over 1.6M monthly active users, the app is taking its show to Facebook for the first time.

The company has been testing its Timeline integration with a few users and has already seen over 275M impressions of Viddy content through Facebook, according to Viddy Co-founder Brett O’Brien.

When I talked to O’Brien about Viddy joining Facebook’s Open Graph initiative, he shared some thoughts about what it means for Viddy and its community:

The real opportunity is around what Viddy is uniquely doing in mobile video, allowing you to capture video and share it easily. Now with Facebook Timeline, you have this incredible social canvas, a great place to share memorable moments of your life whether it be stories, photos, or in our case videos. We think videos are the most powerful type of media, and sharing them with your friends and family is a really powerful combination with the publishing power of Facebook.

As more companies start using Facebook Timeline to post media, the word “memories” and “moments” are being used at a rapid pace. The idea of placing a video on Facebook and allowing it to be seen way past the time you recorded it helps tell your personal story through the popular feature. When Facebook first announced Timeline I wondered out loud if the company was simply asking us for too much information.

As the feature rolled out to all of my friends, I’ve slowly seen them add things about themselves from their past. It seems like these folks aren’t posting these things to share with everyone necessarily, but using it to create a journal of their lives for themselves. The idea of letting your future children take a glimpse into your past digitally is something Facebook is counting on. By sharing videos with Viddy, your Timeline comes to life more than it would with simple text-based status updates.

The interesting part about Viddy is that other than limiting your videos to 15 seconds, the company provides you with simple editing tools and production packs which can make even the most mundane 15 seconds seem pretty awesome. O’Brien had this to say about Viddy’s approach:

The quality of the content on Viddy is so interesting and entertaining, however the video itself isn’t always so compelling. By giving you one-click editing tools and production packs, it makes the average video look really great.

When it comes to marketing its app, I’d have to say that Viddy is one of the best in the business at doing so. The company has partnered up with artists like T-Pain, movie releases like The Muppets, and New York Fashion Week participant Diane von Furstenberg to bring its app to all walks of life.

The company recently released a new series of production packs inspired by and in partnership with Linkin Park that let you add the band’s music and unique look to your own videos.

Facebook’s Timeline view is now available for everyone, including brands. We’ve gotten used to viewing our friends’ information in the view, and it’s actually quite handy. Being able to travel back in time to see what someone was up to a few years ago is a great way to display data.

One developer agreed and wondered what your Google+ posts would look like in a Timeline view. It’s that curiosity that led Jari Huomo to building My Google+ Timeline.

Since the Google+ API is read-only at this point, this was the perfect project to re-imagine a view for its data. Here’s what my Google+ posts look like in Timeline view:

It’s exactly what you’d expect from an app called “My Google+ Timeline”. To use the app, put your Google+ ID into this URL: http://www.googleplussuomi.com/timelinetest.php?googleid=110479310742964256734. Don’t get me started on how much I despise the Google+ ID, I sincerely hope Google is working on a proper username system.

Once you’ve plugged your ID in, it will take a minute or two for your Timeline to load for the first time. After it has, you can change the sort of the Timeline by old to new, new to old, or most popular first:

It’s a neat little hack and usage of the Google+ API, but I’m not sure how long it’ll be around since Facebook seems to like fighting for the mark of “Timeline”, and the design seems to be directly lifted from Facebook.

None the less, it’s a fun trip through memory lane for you and your friends on Google+.

➤ My Google+ Timeline

In a blog post today, Facebook announced some new apps that are utilizing its Timeline functionality, all of them being media related. The company also reported some interesting statistics for those who have been using the Open Graph platform since it was announced in September at Facebook’s f8 conference.

With over 850M users, Facebook hosts a wide-range audience of users from every demographic. That’s precisely what makes the company so valuable as it enters its initial public offering, especially to advertisers.

One service that Facebook uses as an example is The Guardian, it says that The Guardian’s Facebook app has been installed over 5 million times. That alone is impressive, but the part that jumps out the most is that more than half of those using the Facebook app are 24-years-old or younger. The 18-34 demographic is the most hotly sought after demographic for any media company on any platform, be it the web or television.

It’s not just The Guardian who is seeing these types of results, Yahoo! News has said that its Social Bar app on Facebook has over 2 million daily users and the most active demographic is 18-34. What Timeline does for these companies is give it a piece of real-estate on a Facebook users profile to serve up content as it’s read and shared.

This bodes quite well for the massive social network as it should begin being publicly traded sometime in May of this year. People who wish to invest in Facebook want to know that it will be able to engage its userbase in content consumption and sharing which means that these media outlets are getting more eyeballs on its own advertising. While it remains to be seen how effective Facebook’s own advertising platform will be, the company is making itself an indispensable piece of the content distribution model for media companies.

By having a simple “Like” button on news and videos, companies can get the type of circulation that it can’t get elsewhere. Now with Open Graph, these same companies can take things a step further with their own apps. It’s a huge win for Facebook too, as content keeps people engaged, and engagement means people are staying put on Facebook rather than going elsewhere. If the Newsfeed became empty one day, its users would start surfing other sites.

Other apps launching with Timeline functionality today are: CBS Local: Los Angeles and New York, CMT, The Daily Show, GetGlue, MSNBC.com, and MTV News. These are all huge media properties and wins for the Facebook platform.

If advertising ever does make its way into the Newsfeed, those apps will probably include some type of revenue sharing with Facebook for displaying them, which will make shareholders very happy and more importantly, very comfortable with the future of the company.

Now that most of us have Facebook’s new Timeline feature, we’re able to add a bunch of things from our past to the social network. The question I’ve been asking is “why would I want to do that?”. I may have just gotten a pretty good answer to that.

In a joint project by Facebook and design firm Definition6, TimelineMovieMaker will turn all of the posts on your Timeline into a really eye-catching movie, complete with special effects and music.

All you have to do is give the app access to your Facebook account, and it will handle the rest. As you’re waiting for your movie to be created, you’ll see certain pictures from your Timeline that will be included:

It only takes a few minutes to create your movie and once it’s done, you can watch it and choose different music or replace photos afterwards:

Once you’re happy with your Timeline movie, you can share it to Facebook and let friends have a look:

While this is a dead-simple app that explains itself, it is interesting that this is an official Facebook product. Of course, with the word “Timeline” in the domain name, it would have to be. Whether Definition6 did all of the heavy creative lifting or not, this has to be one of the uses of Timeline Facebook thought about when it first released the product.

I’ll admit that seeing all of my Facebook activity in video form makes me want to fill in some of the gaps to make for a better “movie”. While my life isn’t interesting enough to hit the big screen, I do get a kick out of seeing it on the small one.

The bummer is that you can’t export or embed the video to share elsewhere, but hopefully that will be added since I’d love to put this up on YouTube.

➤ TimelineMovieMaker

A few months ago, we introduced you to an app from photo hosting site 1000memories called “ShoeBox“. The app lets you scan old photos and place them into digital “shoeboxes” for sharing or to keep safe for the future.

The whimsical nature of the app which lets you describe old photos, letters, postcards, or anything you have sitting around the house, fits in perfectly with Facebook’s goal for its Timeline product. Adding things from your past to fill in the gaps.

1000memories has announced its official Timeline integration, which lets you add the original date a specific item or photo was taken, and it will share it to Facebook with that date intact. Here’s what 1000memories co-founder Rudy Adler had to say about the integration:

It’s easy to forget that Facebook is only 7 years old, which means most of our photos and memories are not online yet. The introduction of Facebook Timeline has made clear the huge gaps in our life stories – most obviously from our birth dates to the invention of Facebook in 2004. We built ShoeBox to finally get these photos from our past out of the closet and online where they can be enjoyed by everyone.

The two seem to be a match made in heaven.

Sharing photos on your Timeline

When you have the ShoeBox app for iOS fired up, simply scan something and set a date on it. When you choose to share, simply choose Facebook. All of the information will transfer over to your Timeline and your photos will be placed accordingly.

Once you’ve shared a photo, it will show up on the right-hand side of your Facebook profile and will fill in your Timeline. Depending on how far your photos go back in time, your Timeline will start looking more complete. This is an absolute genius use of the Facebook feature, and one that will help people fill in missing years on the site.

While I’ve personally not seen a lot of my friends on Facebook fill in past years on their Timeline, having an app that is all about bringing back photos from your past should kickstart that activity. As Facebook starts approving new applications and actions for Open Graph, we’ll be seeing more apps taking advantage of everything that Timeline has to offer.

➤ ShoeBox for iOS

Thanks to a company called SpinningHat, you can forever memorialize your favorite profile design forever. Or as many times as you plan on taking a shower.

The “Social Shower Curtain” will set you back $23, but it’s worth it for the “lol” factor. Plus, it’s retro already, isn’t it?

The unauthorized Facebook shower curtain comes complete with a transparent window where your profile picture would normally go. If someone dares to enter the bathroom during your morning splash-session, they’ll be able to check your status in real-time. The shower curtain is set to ship in February.

Let’s hope Facebook doesn’t plan on suing like Apple is over the Steve Jobs doll.

➤ Social Shower Curtain

According to a report from Inside Facebook, people who really hate Timeline and are looking for ways to get rid of it are becoming victims of scams on the social network.

By searching for “remove Timeline” or “disable Timeline” on Facebook, you’ll find a slew of groups and pages promising step by step instructions on how to disable the new Facebook feature that just recently went live for everyone. There’s only one problem, disabling Timeline is impossible, and users who follow these instructions are being scammed.

Some of the scams don’t appear to be harmful, simply dropping you on a landing page asking you to like a few pages and in return your Timeline will magically disappear. Mind you, it seems like an obvious scam to those who are tech savvy, but for people who really don’t understand how Facebook works and don’t like the new feature, they’ll apparently try anything:

While liking things won’t do any technical damage, some scams are asking people to download and install extensions for their browser, and who knows what type of harm that could cause. For example, 14,068 people have liked this page that automatically prompts you to download an extension as soon as you do so:

There’s no way to know how successful these scams have been or what they do to users exactly, but it’s best to keep an eye out for these types of things if one of your friends shares it with you. There’s no way to disable Timeline once you’ve said yes to trying it out, and it will be mandatory in the coming weeks. If you find one of these pages, you can simply click “Report page” in the bottom right hand side to help Facebook get rid of this junk.

If you really despise Facebook, you could always go back to using IE7, which is no longer supported by Facebook.

It appears that Facebook has stopped supporting Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 7 browser, according to our friends at The Sociable.

While this isn’t surprising since the browser is five years old, it is a bit of a hack for those who would rather not use Facebook’s Timeline feature to browse the site. It’s not perfect though, since along with dropping Timeline, IE7 also screws up the page a bit with extra white space:

Once you get past all of that though, it’s the same old Facebook that we’ve used for years:

Even if you’re not a PC user, you can spoof your browser’s user agent to emulate IE7 quite easily with Safari.

Just go to Preferences > Advanced > Show Develop Menu In Bar

Once you do that, just click Develop and User Agent like so:

You can even clean up that ugly white space by installing a script called F.B. Purity. That’s a lot of work to get around having to see a Timeline on Facebook, but if you’re geeky, have the time and want the challenge, go for it!