Facebook's "Open Graph" Concept

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a series of updates integral to their next-gen Facebook Platform today at their third annual f8 conference held in San Francisco. At the heart of these updates is the technology to allow Facebook data to flow more easily outside the carefully-controlled confines of Facebook itself.

Building on the success and widespread adoption of Facebook Connect, first announced at the inaugural f8 in 2008, a new concept dubbed “Open Graph” will expose your Facebook connections and public data to third-party web sites and mobile apps. In doing so, these outside services can better personalize your experience based on the data it finds. Expect the data to flow in two directions as services like Pandora, Yelp, Foursquare and other connected services feed even more behavioral data into your personal Open Graph.

You can easily imagine a scenario wherein after analyzing your Foursquare check-ins, Yelp decides that you really have a thing for Thai food and helpfully displays all of the Thai Restaurants in your immediate area upon start-up. Or perhaps you’ve favorited so many female singer-songwriter tracks at your favorite music-streaming service, that Yelp notifies you that Sara Barailles is playing at the Hotel Cafe nearby in Los Angeles this evening.

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably marveling at the glorious levels of personalization you might experience while simultaneously cringing at the potential privacy issues that Open Graph may unleash on unsuspecting users. But wait, there’s more!

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If you’ve been using Google Docs because you’re looking for a collaborative platform to work in that resides in the “cloud” or you just hate Microsoft and its Office products, then this post is for you. This week, the search giant announced a series of updates to Google Docs which are sure to make fans of the cloud-based service very happy indeed.

Some of these updates included the documents editor, which received additions such as a margin ruler, tab stops, comments, a re-worked system for placing and maintaining bullets and numbers and support for real-time collaboration of up to 50 people. In addition, spreadsheets now allows for cells to be edited from the formula bar, the use of auto-fill and the dragging and dropping of columns.

Plus, the system is reportedly going to be much faster, smoother and more intuitive. In truth, there are so many improvements announced by Google that it would almost be a disservice to them to try and list them all. Besides, why read about something when you can watch it instead, right?

Fortunately, Google has put together a little video highlighting the changes and we’ve got it right here for you after the jump. Check it out.

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Last week, a new site came to the attention of the video game world. Game Crush launched with the promise of giving gamers something they have searched their lives for… a girl to game with. Unfortunately, this isn’t a social networking site to help gamer guys and gamer girls connect with an interest of mutual friendship. Instead, Game Crush more closely resembles a service you’d see advertised on late night cable that comes with a 900 number. For just $6.60, a gamer can play over XBox Live or a browser based game against a hot girl.

Yes, “connecting” to a hot girl has been reduced to 66 cents a minute for gamers (although that rate is better than the $2.99 for phone sex lines). With either voice chat over Live or video and voice chat through browser games, these girls will actually play certain games with their customers.

After each interaction, users are encouraged to rate each girl which, according to the site, will decide which girls get a stronger spotlight on the site. Without a doubt, the most “enterprising” of these gamer girls will quickly figure out what these guys are actually paying to hear.

What’s even more sad at a service like this coming into existence is the fact that it is already becoming an internet sensation. Logging on to Game Crush today, potential “dates” were greeted with the following message:

“The GameCrush Public Beta is temporarily unavailable due to the incredible user response (more than 10,000 inquiries in five minutes). We are adding new servers to provide players with the best PlayDate experience possible. Games with GameCrush PlayDates start at $6.60 for ten minutes.”

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Responding to rather vocal criticism from much of the online community, Google is making adjustments to its two-day-old Google Buzz service to enhance, and enable users to more easily manage, privacy. Buzz, as it currently exists, was to be Google’s answer to Twitter and Facebook with a dash of FriendFeed thrown in, but so far it seems off to a somewhat rocky start — at least when it comes to user privacy concerns.

The changes, to be implemented later today, include:

• More visible option to not show followers/people you follow on your public profile
• Ability to block anyone who starts following you
• More clarity on which of your followers/people you follow can appear on your public profile

These changes will hopefully help users feel more comfortable with the service. I, for one, turned it off due to concerns that my contact list was being viewed by anyone who follows me, regardless if they are someone I know. With these new privacy features, let’s hope Google gets Buzz going in the right direction again.

Do you use Buzz? Or, is it something you’re not interested in? Let us know in the comments.

We’ve been following this one closely here at The Flickcast because we’re big fans of Hulu and think it’s a great way to watch TV shows and movies you missed when they originally aired or to discover new shows. The service has many things going for it but one of its main attractions is that, at the moment, its free. You only have to watch a few commercials during a normal episode of a TV program, for example, and other than that, the service costs you nothing.

As we’ve discussed before, that may change in the near future. And now, Hulu is talking about yet another pricing model: charging users to watch episodes of 30 Rock, Modern Family and House. The move would mark a significant change for the site, which was launched nearly two years ago by a group of studios to distribute TV shows and movies via the Internet without charge.

According to reports, Hulu has spent the last several months trying to figure out how to balance what users expect to see for free with what they would be willing to pay for. Another plan being considered would allow users to view the five most recent episodes of TV shows for free but would require a subscription of $4.99 a month to watch older episodes.

Hulu believes it will need at least 20 TV series — both current ones and those no longer on the air — to make such a pay service attractive to users. A firm pricing model could emerge within six months. Well, at least they seem to be taking their time to figure out the right way to screw serve us.

Today, Netflix announced it will be adding another gaming console to its list of streaming video partners: the Nintendo Wii. The companies are teaming up to bring Netflix’s streaming media service to the console this spring. Of course, in order to take advantage of this service, Wii owners will need to have a broadband internet-connected Wii (who doesn’t?) and a subscription to a minimum $8.99 Netflix plan.

Now the bad news. Similar to the service on the PS3, the Wii will not have an embedded application like it is on the XBox 360 and instead will require a Netflix application disc which must be inserted in the Wii while accessing content. Given that, still ready to jump on board? If so, you can sign up now to receive additional information and reserve an application disc at Netflix’s website.

Even with having to use the disk this is still great news for those of you who use a Wii and don’t have an XBox 360 or PS3. We realize that not everyone can have more than one console and many people prefer the Wii over the other two. So, even though it took some time, we’re glad this service will finally be available for you — silly inserted disk requirement not withstanding.

I think at this point Hulu has almost become as incorporated into modern life as Netflix, at least for many people. Recently, charts and statistics were released comparing it to 2009′s biggest blockbusters, and the breakdown of revenues and investors for the site. The charts enlighten us on audience numbers, grosses on opening weekends, and the amount of growth Hulu has seen since it was founded in March of 2007.

While the comparison doesn’t really seem to hold up, (perhaps, it would be better to see it compared to other online content portals, television networks, or possibly even cable providers) it is very interesting to see how Hulu is configured as well as some of the numbers they’ve pulled. With conversations and rumors percolating as to if (or when) the site will move to a subscription service, these numbers should show that the site is doing well enough as-is.

Until then, check out these very nice looking graphics after the break, which were created by the marketing firm Buzzpoint. and let us know what you think of Hulu possibly charging for their content.

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