14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook has taken the Open Graph to the next level. At last year's f8 conference, Facebook introduced a new type of apps and a new platform to support them, the Open Graph. These apps would integrate tightly with Facebook and share activity, mostly automatically, via the Facebook Ticker or in the Timeline.
Facebook launched the new concept with a few apps, from big name players, such as Spotify, Yahoo or The Guardian. But, contrary to the name, the Open Graph was not truly open, until now.
Facebook has now opened up the Open Graph so that any developer can build any type of app on it. This means that they can use any verb, besides the existing, 'listened,' 'read' and so on.
At the same time, Facebook introduced apps from 60 new partners, all of which are now available to Facebook users.
"New timeline apps are now available from Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and others," Facebook announced.
"You can now enhance your timeline with apps that help you tell your story, whether you love to cook, eat, travel, run, or review movies," it said.
You can check out a full list of new Timeline apps here. 'Installing' them is another matter. There are some actual Facebook apps in there, i.e. apps that live inside Facebook, but there's no way to know which is which apart from checking out their URL in the browser status bar.
Most of the 'apps' though are links to the websites that they're linked to. In that case, you have to link your existing account there with your Facebook one, unless they're already linked and unless the sites only accept Facebook accounts, in which case you don't need to do anything more.
Not all of the new apps work the same. Some do indeed share your activity, in the Timeline and in the Ticker, but some are less intrusive. They also offer various ways of controlling what you share, although there seems to be a greater emphasis on educating users about what it is the apps will share.