Facebook’s F8 plans have been revealed, and its focus is clear: Content. With the directional motto “Read. Watch. Listen.”, Facebook is reportedly planning to structure the massive amount of social content flooding into the platform in a way that shares content activity both inside and outside of the service. In this way, Facebook plans to “socialize the Internet.”
- Read: Facebook is assumed to be partnering with large online publishers like Yahoo, CNN, the Washington Post and The Daily.
- Watch: The platform will be merging with several online video hosting sites, Ooyala rumored to be one of several.
- Listen: Facebook Music is coming with companies like Spotify AB and Rdio Inc. set to publish alongside user activity on Facebook pages.
Read, Watch, and Listen will apparently be integrated seamlessly into Facebook’s current user interface in the form of clickable buttons, with a “Want” button soon to follow. These buttons could help sort the way users interact with content on the platform, also serving to provide more specific data on what sort of content users are digesting, at what times of day this occurs, and how best brands or publishers can deliver that content on Facebook.
Facebook has already experienced wild success in social gaming, with San Francisco-based network game developer Zynga leading the way across the platform. Facebook plans to build on the success of its now-popular social gaming mechanic by incorporating a live-updating sidebar of friends’ content consumption activity. F8 rumors also include more robust planning for mobile platform products for Facebook.
The Google+ vs Facebook war seems more heated than ever with Facebook putting up a good fight to maintain its lead in the world of social networking. It remains to be seen how Google+ will keep up with the seemingly impressive features Facebook has up its sleeve, and we can only watch and wait to see how it all turns out.
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