Social just keeps getting better for both consumers and service providers. Last week Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and Director of Product Development, Bret Taylor, announced what seems to be a conceptual replacement for Facebook Connect. Open Graph will enable service sites and apps to communicate with each other sharing user data at a whole new level. The end benefit is that consumers are connected to more information and offers that better fit their interests and preferences. A unique aspect of this platform is that the individual never has to visit the site the information is potentially coming from. You’ll receive offers from service sites without having to sign-in to their network. Early partners include Yelp, Pandora and Microsoft.
The idea is that when you visit a site like Yelp through your Facebook profile, Yelp will then be able to access any of your public information regarding your interests, whether it is your favorite food or a band you like. Yelp could access data regarding your music preferences from the information Pandora shared with the graph when you selected “I like this song” on their site. This raises some obvious privacy concerns since it will be up to the user to moderate how their public information is being shared… so buyer beware!
I’m definitely diggin’ the fact my interests and preferences will be even more tailored moving forward, but keep in mind this is like our public profiles on steroids. Just make sure you’re on top of who is seeing your shared information and why.
-Steve Iaconis