Open Graph pt.2

I think that this author will change her opinion when adoption of Open Graph apps increases. Maybe Facebook should add an option to record all the activity of an app but then give the user the option to post it or keep it private. I wouldn't mind installing one of these apps to track what I read on certain sites but I don't want to bother my friends with the data deluge.

Facebook: Ruining or Evolving Online Sharing?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2396694,00.asp

ARTICLE DATE : November 21, 2011
By Chloe Albanesius

It should come as no surprise that Facebook is broadening its reach beyond the confines of Facebook.com, but is the social network ruining sharing with its "frictionless" approach?

That is the assertion made by CNET's Molly Wood, who penned a column this weekend that railed against Facebook's relatively new apps approach—which called on music and content creators to develop Facebook-specific apps that allow users to share what they're listening to or reading. Link up Spotify and Facebook, for example, and anything you listen to on the service will be pushed to your Facebook news feed. Do the same with Yahoo News, and Facebook will broadcast the headline of any news story you read.

If you click on an apps-based link via your news feed, you can't actually read the article until you too add that publication's app and start sharing your reading habits. While Facebook might argue that this makes your experience more engaging, Wood argued that it's too "passive" for a social network.

"Sharing and recommendation shouldn't be passive. It should be conscious, thoughtful, and amusing," she wrote. "We choose these gems from the noise. Open Graph will fill our feeds with noise, burying the gems."

In a recent interview with Charlie Rose, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg said this type of sharing is the future of Facebook. Going forward, instead of just telling people how you feel or what you had for dinner, you can share your interests more deeply with apps that bring in your activity from across the Web. "Do you want to go to the movies by yourself or with your friends?" Zuckerberg asked.

CNET's Wood apparently wants to go to the movies by herself. "For every five people who authorize an app, I'd guess five will turn away, and eventually get annoyed enough to stop clicking links at all, and maybe eventually annoyed enough to stop visiting Facebook so often, and go searching for somewhere easier and less invasive to simply post a link and have fun with your friends," she wrote.

Wood's column struck a chord, with many in the tech world chiming in. Read Write Web's Marshall Kirkpatrick argued that frictionless sharing "is a violation of the relationship between the web and its users. Facebook is acting like malware."

On the other side, tech blogger Robert Scoble said he's "all in" with the sharing revolution and not concerned about the creepy factor. "We've crossed the freaky line never to return to a world where apps don't share with Facebook," he wrote.

ZDNet's Larry Dignan, however, suggested that the controversy was only bothering those in the tech community. "A funny thing happened on the way to the oversharing backlash—I'm seeing little of it among my non-tech friends," he wrote. "I haven't installed any of these news apps because I don't feel like sharing everything I click on—it's stupid. And frankly I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if most average folks refrain from these news apps."

Personally, I don't want people to know what I'm doing on sites outside Facebook, but I would consider myself to be a rather private person. When Zuckerberg talks about sharing things with your friends he talks as if everyone on your "friends" list is really a friend. But of the 239 people on my list (and that's a pretty low number, on average), there are probably only a dozen or so who are true friends with whom I'd be comfortable sharing all the details of my Web activity.

But that's why I don't add those apps or connect outside accounts to Facebook. If the activity on my news feed is any indication, however, there are those who have no qualms about sharing freely. Is it annoying when I see an interesting news link that requires me to add an app before reading? Yes, but it's not the end of the world. Is it passive? For many I'm sure it is, but there are also those whose activity has likely sparked an interesting debate about the articles or music in question. Like many things in life, it works for some but not for others.