Ticker, νέο live feed στο Facebook

Tο Facebook ετοιμάζει έναν νέο σχεδιασμό που επιτρέπει στους χρήστες του να επιλέγουν αν θέλουν να βλέπουν σε πραγματικό χρόνο όλη τη δραστηριότητα των φίλων τους ή μόνο τα κορυφαία νέα.

Πιο συγκεκριμένα, σκοπεύει να....

ενσωματώσει μια νέα λειτουργία που ακούει στο όνομα ‘Ticker’, αντικαθιστώντας το ‘Most Recent’ feed που βρίσκεται στο δεξί μέρος του News Feed. Στο ‘Ticker’ οι χρήστες του Facebook θα μπορούν να βλέπουν όλα τα σχόλια, likes, νέες φιλίες, φωτογραφίες και status updates των φίλων τους. Στην ουσία θα μπορούν να βλέπουν λίγο πολύ τα πάντα!

Προς το παρόν, τα ‘Top News’ θα παραμείνουν ως έχουν, παρουσιάζοντας τα πιο ενδιαφέροντα γεγονότα, όπως ταξινομούνται από τον αλγόριθμο του Facebook.

Το πιθανότερο είναι ότι η νέα λειτουργία του Facebook αποτελεί μια προσπάθεια ενίσχυσης των developers των παιχνιδιών και των εφαρμογών. Αυτή τη στιγμή, οι χρήστες συνηθίζουν να αποκρύπτουν (Hide) τα παιχνίδια ή τις εφαρμογές που δεν τους ενδιαφέρουν. Με τη νέα λειτουργία, όμως, έχοντας τη δυνατότητα επιλογής ανάμεσα σε όλα τα νέα ή μόνο τα κορυφαία, είναι λιγότερο πιθανό να συνεχίσουν να μπαίνουν στη διαδικασία απόκρυψής τους.

[πηγή allfacebook]  - techgear.gr

Facebook Begins Rolling Out ‘The Ticker’ To More Users

While we haven’t confirmed whether or not the move is permanent, Facebook appears to be in the process of rolling out a live feed ticker to the homepage of all users. What’s most significant is how this could impact the platform as we’re expecting this to become a communication channel for all applications.

The live ticker is a way of giving users access to real-time information while separating the main feed, the stories of which are now called “Highlights”. It’s an interesting format, however it’s slightly distracting as the real-time ticker follows you as you scroll down the page. Those users who enjoyed the real-time feed as their primary feed will be disappointed. While the new feed is hard to adjust to, the “Ticker” is an interesting feature with an interesting interface as well. As you scroll over various stories, they pop-over the main feed, making commenting possible.
A couple weeks ago the Wall Street Journal wrote that this feature would eventually be rolled out to all users. This evening it appears that the roll out is happening for many individuals. While I’d assume Facebook will avoid commenting on our speculation, it’s pretty clear that this is part of a much broader part of Facebook’s strategy to combat the increasing competition from Google Plus. The current battle is over developers, many of which already have plenty of their own scars if they’ve been operating on the Facebook Platform for the past four years.

Plea To Developers

Just last week Facebook announced adjustments to the patform that provide dramatic improvements for developers looking to obtain exposure. Most significant is that users can now post on an unlimited number of friends’ walls through Platform applications. Facebook realized that arbitrary limits weren’t useful for developers, but thanks to more transparent monitoring algorithms. If developers abuse the newly opened channels, Facebook has made it pretty clear that apps could be shut down.
In order to prevent that from happening, Facebook states, “We highly encourage limited use of this functionality and continued review of your App Insights to ensure that users are responding positively to all Stream stories generated by your app.” While Facebook is not publicly stating that they feel threatened by Google, their actions make things pretty clear. They want the developers to continue building on the Platform, and more importantly, those who have left, should also return.
While it’s only the beginning of Facebook’s latest efforts, I strongly believe that the new “Ticker” feature will soon become an open channel for developers, partially, if not fully reviving the growth opportunity previously lost when Facebook pulled notifications from the Platform last March (yeah, it has been a while). With this channel, plus the highly buzzed HTML5 mobile Platform expected to launch this year, Facebook hopes to provide a compelling offering to developers.
It’s the exact same audience that Google will begin lobbying to as they expand their Plus Platform. Just today the company announced that they’ve hired Louis Gray to come on as an “evangelist” for the company. My guess is that he’ll become part of that lobbying effort.
For social app developers, things couldn’t get much better. Facebook’s increasingly fearful of Google who will do anything to be big in the online social market. The only thing I can say to developers is that things are going to continue to get much better for the foreseeable future. Competition among Platforms is good for developers and theoretically consumers as well. Now all we’ll need to wait and see is how long this new phase of opportunity lasts.

[πηγή allfacebook]