Today in Social

The speeches are still going on at Facebook’s f8 developer conference event as I write this, but let me summarize some of the key takeaways. (Here’s a the easiest to read summary I’ve seen so far.) Facebook’s page redesign presents pre-populated lists (filter feed by groups), the news feed (algorithmically ranked stories and updates), and a real-time ticker of all activities from your friends and people you subscribe to. Today it introduced a new concept, the Timeline, where a user can create profile views of events, pictures, app usage etc. and make them visible to select groups. The latest iteration of the social graph for media and lifestyle apps enables any app – even those not running in Facebook’s walled garden, but on the web or phones – to auto-post usage without requiring a Share, or Like or check-in. The object will be to pull a steady stream of activities and sort them into those different discovery streams. It’s pretty brilliant if apps actually adopt it. The pitch to developers: use it and your app will get shared and discovered — “the most popular app wins.” I expect Timelines will follow an 80/20 rule of consume versus create, and most users aren’t creators. More detailed analysis on Monday.