Facebook re-invents web apps for music, movies and news

Facebook re-invents web apps for music, movies and news
Facebook - being more social

Facebook has announced a number of new apps that will be used within the social network, offering up a more social way to listen to music, watch movies and read the news.

Unveiled at Facebook's f8 conference, these new type of 'open' apps allow any company to create an app that allows social interaction.

On board already are big names like Spotify and Netflix, both allowing you to see what music and movies your friends are watching and allow you to watch movies and listen to music straight from the Facebook homepage.

Apps for any lifestyle

There's also a number of lifestyle apps. Included in this is a more interactive version of Nike Plus.

These supercharged apps will aggregate all the interesting stuff you are doing and give you at a glance reports that you can add to the newly developed Facebook Timeline. Partners like Ticketmaster are also on board.

Mark Zuckerberg said about the apps: "The open graph is a completely new class of social apps to discover new things with your friends."

Speaking about the Spotify app, Daniel Ek from Spotify said: "Finding new music is always difficult and that is why we created Spotify. We knew the service had to be free and social.

"We have spent the last few years building a service where you can find music. Add this to Facebook's 800 million users and this will light up the world."

Time is on your side

Zuckerberg revealed just how the new apps will work with the Timeline, explaining: "You can fill out your Timeline with your favourite activities using apps and websites, and create a live connection to them so they're updated as you go.

"For example, photographers can fill their Timeline with photo apps that will update with each new photo taken; cooks can add recipe apps that will update with each new dish made; and music fans can connect to apps that show their top playlists."

Other companies that have signed up include the Guardian and the Independent - both offering their news in a more social way, essentially curating what you read on their websites and adding it to your feed - movie sites Netflix and Daily Motion, and music services such as Deezer, SoundCloud and MixCloud.

You can sign up now to try a beta of the Timeline, which should allow you to try out a number of the new apps, including the music streaming.

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.