More functionality & features often means more business & complexity. And as Facebook continues to roll out features, the experience can be crowded. To Facebook's credit, the site is remarkably clean considering the long list of features it needs to include. Below is a screenshot of my normal Facebook web experience - and then an overlayed mapping of what each page portion is. The takeaway is: there's a ton of stuff here and it's time for a true Facebook browser and web app.
Amazon's $199 tablet, the Kindle Fire, is now available for pre-order. The product page is really terrific: colorful, informative, fun and all on a single page. It's great:
The Kindle itself is super appealing because of the price point (side track: but low price and being hardware agnostic is why Android has won such tremendous market share. Even if the iPad is a better product - and it may well be - the Fire's price point is so different that they functionality cannot be compared. If shopping for a Toyota Prius, you don't consider quality as compared to a Mercedes sedan).
The smartest bundle and promotion is Amazon's inclusion of 30 days of free Amazon Prime. Brilliant. Their goal is to make the Fire your home shopping device - and what better way to train users of that potential??
Yesterday Google+ created shareable, public circles. And, as power user Robert Scoble suggested, engagement and usage has surged. In less than a day, I've had over 1,000 people follow me. That is entirely attributable to the new shared circles which are facilitating easier and more effective 'findability'. When people like Scoble curate lists for themselves - and then choose to share them publicly - they are clearly high quality.
A handful of quick, disorganized thoughts on Facebook's announcements / releases this week: Immersive
The activity ticker is immersive and really amplifies 'viral' potential. I have 'liked' (and listened and read and soon to be much watched, etc) so many more 'things' because each one of those actions is now viewable & actionable (whereas it was previously up to FB to cluster it as 'top news'). It's been fun and addictive. But it also requires a tighter social graph - so I've been unsubscribing from some brands and pages. Relies on the Ticker
The movement to Facebook curated "Top News" and the ticker for the continuous stream is great for publishers / developers... assuming that users do in fact use the ticker (heavily I may add!). Will users watch and engage with the ticker when more content appears in it? Or if developers misuse the ticker?
Publisher Opportunity
Between the ticker and the open graph - publishers should be rushing to take advantage. There are two major opportunities:
- Ticker and canvas apps: increased virality, findability, sharability, etc. Actions will be amplified in ways that the feed couldn't. There is a first mover advantage... see Spotify.
- Open graph: organize your content & actions internally... or become a node within the greater Facebook ecosystem. And the ability to then tie those into the Facebook profile and canvas applications is very powerful. Again, see Spotify:
Open Graph: More Than Games
This is an opportunity that opens the ecosystem beyond gaming and digital media. The open graph is an opportunity for industries like e-commerce that previously struggled to drive virality and make engaging on-Facebook experiences.
More than Spotify - Just Wait
Spotify was the marquee integration - and users are complaining that there is simply too much Spotify. That's not a Facebook or Spotify issue - it's a timing issue. More will come. And with the ticker, open graph, etc - the opportunity for new innovations is terrific.
For instance, here's the Washington Post's Social Reader. Between the ticker, the graph and their canvas app - this is truly social news reading. It really shines on the iPad (so give it a spin there).
Timeline is Gorgeous
Timeline represents the shift from newsfeed to identity & memory. That's a big, long-lasting idea. The product video was spectacularly done - reminding me of the emotional connection that Apple and Facetime created with their ad campaign:
We Need Mobile...
Timeline doesn't work on mobile. At least not how it is imagined and was demonstrated. For instance, on the iPad, you cannot scroll across the timeline or move the "cover" photo. It's time for a mobile experience that allows timeline, ticker and ticker's developer ecosystem to really shine.
In-Line Expansions
More to come here... but it is clear that Facebook is looking and behaving more like a browser. The use of expansion units is an attempt to integrate Facebook's ever-growing list of features... without relying on new pageviews.
Ahead of F8, Facebook has rolled out several changes ... which is rather remarkable considering how many updates / features and how significant some are. To do it a couple days ahead of F8 is fascinating because it suggests bigger updates are coming. Tomorrow will be fun. I love the new photo layout... screams mobile! Also like the persistent header
And here is the welcome screen for a user's first experience with the new updates
A post I drafted a few weeks ago and never published... better late than never (I think!) Two good examples of In the River promotions for two new, relatively off-stream product launches: Facebook Messenger
a new mobile application by Facebook focused on Facebook Messages. Location is a highlighted feature that is clearly more important on mobile than on the web. After download, Facebook walks users through the app's key functions - and here is how they alert you of the location feature. Impossible to miss (which is important considering privacy implications, a new feature and a small icon potentially unfamiliar to many):
Twitter Images
Very similar: Twitter released a new product feature (Twitter Images). The product concept is simple and familiar - but the act of sharing via Twitter will be unfamiliar. So Twitter displays a pop-up promotion on Twitter.com that shows the basics, the icon and a link for deeper information. Also similar to Facebook's location alert, Images is an important part of future strategy (see my thoughts here) - but also have privacy and partner implications.... so a clear product launch and description is important:
Yesterday Facebook announced their Subscribe feature (you can read more from Facebook here). It is an important step as it changes the relationship of users: friends, followers, two-way delivery, etc. It is also interesting that it comes on the heels of intelligent friend grouping as both impact the way that people think of friendships and building out their graph. Will users reconstruct their graphs? Doubtful.... after 50 friends, I gave up trying on a new slate at Google +. So will subscribe catch up in a 1:1 dominated Facebook world? Not sure from a friend perspective.
But absolutely from a brand / publisher perspective. This is an opportunity for big voices (journalists, bloggers, etc) and the brands that represent them: Washington Post, ESPN, NYTimes, TechCrunch, etc) to better leverage Facebook. To date, Twitter has been easier in pushing content for these types of voices and organizations.... now Facebook has that power too. And combined with the Like Buttons and site-integrations, that is powerful.
The next step needs to be Subscribe widgets and buttons - which work perfectly for the above audiences. Just as publishers integrate like buttons atop each page, there should be in-line opportunities to subscribe to the author.... which is a big, big benefit for the author, the network and Facebook.
Shamelessly: you can follow me on Faceook here
In addition to Amazon's navigation menu promoting its digital properties ahead of the core business... notice anything interesting? It features dynamic taglines for three of the core properties: - MP3s & Cloud Player: 16m available songs - Cloud Drive: 5gb of storage - Appstore for Android: the free application of the day
For Amazon - the smartest online merchandiser / promoter - it is clearly an intentional decision to promote only three categories: new, growing categories in highly competitive areas. Amazon could off course feature deals of the day in other categories - but by doing so, it crowds the menu and creates too much noise / distraction in the menu... perhaps most importantly, those core categories are already successful, sturdy and well-trafficked. This is not true for the music, cloud and app businesses.
As you think about navigation across your site / experience - this is an example of less being more and the impact a few pixels and a small tagline can make.
I've written about the benefits of using Facebook connect as a registration path: 1. it’s becoming universal and therefor familiar 2. users are more likely to pass information through via Facebook than to a new site 3. it expedites the flows and therefore improves conversions 4. it about more than efficiency. For instance: you can add the facepile for conversions, mobile flows can occur with a phone number (rather than an email address), etc 5. it expedites and simplifies mobile logins (both applications and mobile web)
Here is yet another example: I often stare at login screens and wonder which email / password combination is right. In this example (Groupon), I entered the wrong email / username, and it auto-corrected me based on my Facebook information:
