Facebook makes some changes
Facebook is to allow retailers and other companies to develop applications for Facebook users to add to their personal pages. The first company to take part in this is Amazon.com, which has created a Book Reviews feature that lets Facebook users write about their favorite book and display the review on their page, which when clicked will take readers to Amazon.com’s page for the book. Another retailer called Glimpse.com has come up with a Fashion & Style feature where Facebook users can highlight and comment on favorite items from Glimpse.com’s selection of items. Blue Nile is allowing Facebook users to share info or pics with other users and exchange tips.
In all, 65 developers announced 85 applications for Facebook at a developers conference the company hosted last week in San Francisco. Mark Zuckerberg, the 23-year-old founder and CEO of Facebook, explained that any applications built with the technology Facebook is offering will be as integrated into the information flow and relationships of Facebook as Facebook’s own applications. “Until now, social networks have been closed networks,” Zuckerberg declared. “Today, we’re going to end that.”