14 DAY TRIAL // There are very few companies as determined as Google to take over the web and only one in a position to do so, Facebook. The social-networking giant is getting ready to unveil more features, which would allow it to 'infiltrate' even more sites around the web than it has so far. One feature is a 'like' button, which third-party sites would be able to integrate. Another one could be a Facebook toolbar, which would integrate chat and sharing options, very much like the Meebo Community IM toolbar.
The first feature seems a rather innocuous one. The 'like' functionality is not exclusive to Facebook and plenty of sites offer similar tools. But by integrating the system with other sites, the social network gets access to a huge amount of data that could prove highly useful if exploited properly.
By getting links to content people like from potentially tens of thousands of sites or more, Facebook would gain access to accurate data on what is relevant on the web. What's more, this data would come from the actual users, validating its quality. If the idea of getting accurate data on what users find relevant seems familiar, it's only because Google has been doing it for more than a decade now.
But whereas Google relies on algorithms and indirectly on user preferences, Facebook will get this data straight from the users and for free. If Facebook gets enough sites to implement the feature, which shouldn't be too much of a task, the sky is the limit on what the social network could do with the data that would pour in. Incidentally, Digg's newly revamped Digg buttons work very much in the same way.
Another feature rumored to be coming is somewhat similar to the universal like button, as TechCrunch uncovered, but it takes things to a whole-new level. The like button would be pretty inconspicuous, but the Facebook toolbar would be very hard to miss. The toolbar would sit at the bottom of a website, like the recently departed applications and chat toolbar did on Facebook itself. The tool would likely integrate Facebook chat, but also sharing features. This is exactly what Meebo already offers with Community IM, only that it allows users to chat using a lot more IM accounts and share on Twitter or by email too.