Open Graph Protocol
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.
It is called the Open Graph Protocol.
From the Facebook Developers:
We shared an update last week about the products launched at f8 and that over 50,000 websites have already implemented the new social plugins to become more personalized. We created the Open Graph protocol in support of social plugins as part of our efforts to help realize the vision of the Open Graph.
Any website can implement the Open Graph protocol. It allows any web page to become a rich object in any social graph, making it easy to find what people are liking across the Web — from a movie to a blog. To start integrating the Open Graph protocol into your Web pages, read our documentation.
The Open Graph Protocol is essentially a replacement for- and an extension of Facebook Connect that makes it easier to share information.
Facebook has based the first version of the Open Graph Protocol on Resource Description Framework (RDFa) produced jointly by the W3C Semantic Web Deployment Working Group and the W3C XHTML2 Working Group in 2008. As such it based upon adding extended META tags to web pages and HTTP-based applications.
Define the XML Namespace
<html xmlns:og=”http://opengraphprotocol.org/schema/”
xmlns:fb=”http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml”>
Define the Node
<meta property=”og:title” content=”[TITLE]“/>
<meta property=”og:type” content=”[TYPE]“/>
<meta property=”og:site_name” content=”SITE NAME” />
<meta property=”og:url” content=”[URL]“/>
<meta property=”og:image” content=”[IMAGE URL]“/>
<meta property=”og:description” content=”[DESCRIPTION]“/>
Initially this will enable, through use of Facebook’s new Social Plugins users interact with websites and have their interactions posted to their live streams / walls on Facebook. In addition to this the Open Graph Protocol allows Facebook to categorize that interaction for the purpose of delivering more targeted ad on the users’ Facebook pages.
Later, but not too much later, many other sites will be able to utilize the Graph API to harvest this data for similar purposes, turning Facebook into the online identity management hub for its more than 400 million active users, 50% of whom login to Facebook every day.
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