Facebook Nearing The Release Of ‘Actions’; Integrate Frictionless Sharing Onto Site

Facebook is gearing up to include frictionless sharing on their site by integrating various actions user take across the web into the social network.

According to VentureBeat, such actions would function similar to the ‘like’ button on display but would include elements like ‘Read,’ ‘Listen,’ and ‘Watch.’ The reason Facebook describes them as frictionless as the sharing in question is automatically posted on your Timeline or news ticker. Facebook had told developers to expect the first action approvals in January

Facebook hold these changes in such high regard that it’s calling Actions “the building blocks of Open Graph.” A spokesperson for the company told VentureBeat: “We’re currently focused on the rollout of Timeline, which already features several apps in the news, music and video categories. In the coming weeks, Timeline apps will launch in more categories, including fitness, sports, food, and travel.”

These actions are already in place such as the social reader which notifies your friends about articles you’ve read on the Guardian or Washington Post, or the music you listen to on Spotify. Actions will function the same way and the type of actions you can select will depend on third-party developers who will use the service. Such actions document the type of actions you take when you’re browsing through Facebook and give you records of what you’ve viewed in the past.

Developers can create these actions so a travel site might have a slideshow where they will create a ‘view’ action for it. Viewing the slideshow would make it appear on your friends’ news ticker where they will be able to see your actions. You can also add it onto your timeline where every action relating to ‘view’ can be found.

Facebook is introducing these changes this month so expect to see the first batch of apps that showcase actions to feature on the site over the next couple of weeks.