New York — Underlining the growing popularity of real-time action notifications in social networks, Facebook on Monday said that has unveiled a new tool, called Facebook Open Stream API, that allows users to see a running timeline, or stream, of the activities of their friends on a desktop computer or even on a cell phone, said Justin Bishop, a Facebook engineer, in a blog post today.
Traditionally, Facebook users could only view the updates and postings of friends by logging onto their home pages. With announcement Monday, that has become history. The new “Facebook Open Stream API” is designed to allow developers to create a slew of new applications that would enable users to automatically do tasks like organizing and manipulating their postings.
The move is intended to give Facebook members applications designed to let them access, organize, read, interact with and manage this flow of postings, the company said in an official blog.
“Now, users will be able to view their stream and publish information into it from places that was never possible before — like your desktop computer or your mobile phone. Your stream will appear just as it does on Facebook.com and maintain the same privacy settings,” wrote Bishop in a blog post.
With the release of new API, developers can tap into users’ Facebook “Stream,” a component which tracks status and information updates and profiles to third-party developers, Facebook aims to keep pace with Twitter by allowing members to view and update their feeds from more places outside the site itself.
“We believe that the ability to see more and more of what is happening around you will lead to greater openness and transparency.” wrote Bishop.
Developers will be able to access this content as of Monday via the new Facebook Open Stream API (application programming interface), according to Facebook.
Dave Morin, Facebook’s senior platform manager, said the API will for the first time allow activity streams to appear outside of the Facebook Web site.
“We expect developers will be able to develop multiple different client applications on mobile phones, desktops and other Web sites, and provide many interesting ways to consume the stream and create unique experiences for users,” Morin said in an interview.
This is an excellent move because it will help Facebook members have more control over the sometimes-overwhelming speed and quantity of information flowing into their activity streams, IDC analyst Caroline Dangson said.
“Opening this up to developers will help members find more utility in the activity stream,” she said.
For example, developers could come up with applications to enable members aggregate stream information in different ways and find connections in the flow of content, in the way that developers have built applications for Twitter for similar purposes, Dangson said.
“We think that working alongside our peers to create an open standard for accessing and consuming streams is the future,” said Ray He, a member of the company’s development team, in a separate Facebook blog post today. “With the Facebook Open Stream API, users will be able to use applications to read and interact with their stream. As a Facebook developer, you will also be able to access the posts you have published into the stream and display them in your application, whether it is on a mobile device, Web site or desktop.”
Bishop noted that Facebook has already been working with a few internal and third-party developers to get an early start on the effort to create new applications, such as the one released by the company today. He said that other new programs will be available for review starting later today in the Facebook Application Directory under For Your Desktop.
“In the coming months, you will be able to interact with your stream on even more Web sites and through more applications, in ways we are only beginning to imagine,” he added.
Among the first companies to capitalize on the new Facebook Open Stream API is Seesmic, which allows online video messaging, and now offers a desktop app that lets people to interact with their stream as they would on Facebook, but through the desktop instead of a browser. They can also add comments and “likes” to friends’ posts.
“The entire stream will be available for developers to remix and create new experiences, and we expect to see developers create many more applications that optimize the real-time Facebook experience for different use cases,” wrote Justin Smith, editor of the Inside Facebook blog, Monday.
However, Facebook has to be careful about avoiding privacy landmines, since the activity stream includes all sorts of information about members, including photos and videos, Dangson said.
Although Inside Facebook’s Smith emphasized, that the move does not automatically give access to all content shared by all of 200 million of Facebook’s users worldwide. “Unlike Twitter, where shared information is by default public, but on Facebook, shared information is by default, private,” he wrote. “This indicates that many applications which the marketing community is clamoring for — like the ability to search and access all updates shared by Facebook users — is not part of this release.”