OG: Social Plugins
Recently Facebook released a platform, the Open Graph Protocol, which allows websites and applications to share information about users in order to tailor offers, features and services to each one’s interests and tastes.
It enables any web page to become an object in a social graph that can plot users’ activities and to function much as if it was a Facebook page.
The Facebook Developers’ first integration features are called Social Plugins. This is currently a set of eight (8) plugins which can easily be added to any web page or application in order to connect it more closely to Facebook, offer a set of features from Facebook, and take advantage of the Semantic Web that Facebook is developing.
- Like Button:
Show a “Like” button on your site which replaces the older “Fan” button. The is currently most commonly used Social Plugin. - Recommendations:
Show users personalized suggestions for pages on your site they might like based upon their history as recorded via the Open Graph Protocol and API. - Login with Faces:
Allow the users to sign up to your site with their Facebook account. it also shows a list of the user’s friends who have also signed up for your site. - Comments:
Allow users to comment on your site. The comments will also be posted back to the users Facebook wall. - Activity Feed:
shows users what their friends are doing on your site through likes and comments. - Like Box:
This is previously known as the Fan box. - Facepile:
Shows profile pictures of the user’s friends who have already signed up for your site. - Live Stream:
Lets your users share activity and comments in real-time as they interact during a live event.
These social plugins allow website developers to create websites that have all or most of the social media functions of Facebook pages. In theory this would not only drive more traffic to Open Graph enabled websites, but also reduce the “bounce rate” by enabling greater interaction with the sites in question.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
![[Twitter]](http://www.navycs.com/images/twitter.png){kind=small}
Recently Facebook created a platform that allows websites and applications to share information about users in order to tailor offers, features and services to each one’s interests and tastes – even if that individual has never visited the site before. It enables any web page to become an object in a social graph that can plot users’ activities.
