Yesterday, when the launch of Apple’s latest zeitgeist defining wonder-rectangle drowned out most other news, a couple of Facebook stories also emerged which are (at least in the RMM office) considered a fair bit more interesting.
First, was the announcement that Facebook’s UK membership has passed the 30 million barrier and now counts over half Britain’s population amongst its users. Secondly, that those users will now be able to incorporate Facebook into even more of their online activities through the new comments plug-in which is helping further expand the social network’s online influence. The plugin is already being widely adopted with third party sites such as Discovery.com, The Economist and SportingNews all joining up (you can also check it out in action on this unrelated Techcrunch article).
The plugin’s main feature is allowing comments made on articles/content on third party websites to be synced with Facebook. So, when I comment on a technology blog to declare that I would sell my friends into slavery for a shiny new iPad2 my friends will be able to see this via Facebook. After responding (presumably to say that they respect my healthy attitude towards new Apple hardware) their rejoinders will also appear on the technology blog comments as well as in the usual Facebook locations.
This is an interesting development as instead of Facebook users simply linking to something via the ‘like’ button they can now clearly share how they are discussing content and interacting with other communities. From a marketing perspective users who may previously have been preaching to the converted, will now be sharing their evangelisms to their wider group of friends via facebook. As well as opening up conversations to a much wider audience, the linking of comments to a specific facebook account should give a much clearer picture of exactly who is talking about a specific subject.
Additionally, this should be a blow against the evils of trolling and general rudeness which dominates so many comment sections and which many have attributed to the freedom from social constraint provided by web anonymity. Obviously, not every website will adopt the plug-in and not all total bastards strongly opinionated web users will care if their real name is visible. Nonetheless, it’s a huge step towards clearly differentiating between the anonymous purveyors of bile and those brave enough to stick their true identity next to their opinions.
The ability to further see exactly who is saying what as well as maybe increase the reach of such conversations is a fascinating prospect and undeniably Facebook is the perfect platform to provide these new benefits. The only cost is the world’s largest social network extending its tendrils yet further through the web. Now, is that a good or a bad thing? We’ll get back to you on that one…
