Facebook has created a platform that allows sites and apps to share information about users in order to tailor offers, features and services to each one's interests and tastes - even if that individual has never visited the site before.
When you're signed on to Facebook, participating websites like CNN.com will display information, goods and services tailored specifically to your interests - without requiring you to sign in at that website or provide it with any information.
Speaking at the F8 Developer Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former FriendFeed (FriendFeed) CEO Bret Taylor, who is now Facebook's director of product, named three new features that will make this possible and easy to implement.
Zuckerberg and Taylor described a concept called "Open Graph" that will be useful to businesses and services. On Facebook, users are connected to people they know, as well as public figures, services and products they like; Facebook's new platform will allow websites and apps to share this information with each other.
When you connect to sites like Yelp (Yelp) via your Facebook profile, Yelp will have access to any information you've made publicly available about your favorite foods or favorite bands, and will be able to take that into account when giving you information about restaurants or music venues. For example, Yelp could pull information about your favorite music from data that Pandora (Pandora) added to the graph when you favorited a song on its site.
This is essentially a replacement for Facebook Connect that makes it easier to share information. However, unlike Facebook Connect, Open Graph participants will be able to store user data for more than 24 hours.