You may have seen a lot of buzz about the upcoming changes that the Facebook team announced at their developer conference this week. They are talking about getting rid of Facebook Connect and replacing it with deeper social integration features for your websites that are easier to implement – even for non-programmers.
Some excerpts from yesterday’s announcement:
Social Plugins
Instantly engaging social experiences with just one line of HTMLThe most important plugin is the Like button, available with one line of HTML. On Facebook and now anywhere, the Like button offers users a lightweight and consistent way to share the things and topics that interest them.
Open Graph Protocol
Any webpage can now easily become part of the social graphBy giving your users better, simpler ways to connect with the content on your site, you can then use those connections to provide more personalized, relevant experiences. And the product only gets better over time. The more people that come back to your site, the more connections that are made, the better your service becomes.
Graph API
A drastically simplified way for developers to use Facebook PlatformWe’ve also made it much easier to integrate with Facebook by using a simplified, standards-based method for authentication and authorization.We’ve adopted OAuth 2.0, a standard we’ve co-authored with the open community, including representatives from Google, Twitter, Yahoo, and others.
Hacking the Graph
We’re excited that more than 75 sites are launching today with social plugins, many with Open Graph-enabled pages. In the first 24 hours, these sites will serve over 1 billion Like buttons. We’ve alsoannounced special partnerships with Microsoft, Pandora, and Yelp to build experiences where people can seamlessly transition between Facebook and other services. These unique partnerships help users discover how bringing friends along makes their Web experience better.
We will be monitoring how these new APIs get rolled out. Watch for an upcoming tutorial article on how you can make your site more social.
