gravatar

Inside Facebook

Inside Facebook

Facebook Releases OAuth 2.0-Ready JavaScript SDK, Extends Migration Deadline to October 1st

Posted: 21 Jul 2011 06:59 PM PDT

Today, Facebook announced the release of the new OAuth2.0-ready version of its JavaScript SDK. This will allow developers to create applications that securely pass User IDs and access tokens. Facebook has pushed back the deadline by which all developers must use the OAuth 2.0 standard from September 1st to October 1st. Facebook has also made some changes to the Developer app to support the migration.

The new JavaScript SDK should become available on Github tomorrow, at which point Facebook will update its reference documentation. Facebook is currently rolling out support for JavaScript OAuth 2.0 across its servers, and those that try upgrading before the roll out finishes may encounter errors.

Facebook experienced some security issues and public scrutiny when it was discovered that some iframe applications were leaking access tokens to unauthorized parties including advertisers. These access tokens could be used to perform actions or extract data from a user’s account without their consent.

While the actual risk to users was low, Facebook accelerated its roadmap for implementing the OAuth 2.0 standard in order to prevent this type of data leak. Facebook planned to have new versions of both the PHP and JavaScript SDKs available by July 1st, with completion of the migration to the security standard planned for July 1st. The PHP SDK was released early, but technical issues delayed the JS SDK’s release until today, prompting the deadline extension.

OAuth 2.0 support is opt-in to prevent breakage to apps before developers complete the transition. To enable it, Facebook explains that developers can include the an oauth parameter to FB.init and set it to true as in this example:

FB.init({    appId : YOUR_APP_ID,    // other parameters,    oauth : true });

Setting the parameter to false or omitting it will keep OAuth 2.0 disabled. For more details on how development differs between the old and new JavaScript SDK, see the release announcement blog post.

Facebook has made some modifications to the Developer app. The “OAuth 2.0 for Canvas setting” has been renamed “signed_request for Canvas” to clarify that when enabled, developers will received a signed_request parameter. An OAuth Migration setting has been added that when enabled indicates the developer has completed the migration to access tokens. Both setting default to disabled.

The Facebook Developer Roadmap now shows that by October 1st, all apps must use OAuth 2.0, expect encrypted access tokens, process signed_request, and have obtained an SSL certificate to allow HTTPS browsing. Once the JavaScript SDK is available, all developers should prepare for this deadline so they have plenty of time to work out bugs.

Facebook Hires Engineers, Licenses Patents From Scrapped Facebook Browser Client Wowd

Posted: 21 Jul 2011 02:59 PM PDT

Facebook desktop and web client developer Wowd has shut down after failing to gain traction. Facebook has hired seven of its former engineers, while several other engineers and Wowd’s founder will form mobile startup called Jildy. Facebook and Jildy have both also licensed several Wowd patents, including ones for social search page ranking and a distributed file system that were bought at the last minute by an unnamed publicly traded company that will honor the deals.

We covered the launch of Wowd’s desktop client back in August 2010. The product sought to allows to create custom news feeds based search parameters or characteristics such as “infrequent posters”. It also looked to offer a way to hide game spam, or view all game-related posts in one feed.

However, the relatively inaccessible nature of desktop software, the launch of social browser RockMelt, improved feed filtering options on Facebook.com, and a significant change to the news feed that kept game spam out of the feeds of non-gamers prevented Wowd from gaining traction. Four months later when it launched a web version, the desktop software had only racked up 500,000 total users and 70,000 daily active users, indicating there wasn’t a massive demand for its Facebook client.

Now, Wowd’s products are no longer available and the company has shut down, bringing the $5 million it raised from Draper Fisher Jurvetson, KPG Ventures and Stanford University with it. CEO Mark Drummond said that by the end it only had “a few million users" and "we weren't growing fast enough.”

Fortunately, seven of its Serbian engineers will be moving to California to join Facebook. There they might apply their knowledge of content filtering to improve Facebook’s news feed algorithm EdgeRank, or the page ranking of its internal search engine. Drummond and five other Wowd engineers will go on to build Jildy, a mobile app that filters social data.

Wowd applied for several fast track patents in October that were issued on May 11th. It agreed to license these to Facebook and Jildy. When a unnamed company heard this news it purchased the patents from Wowd, but the licensing deals will go on.

One social search patent analyzes a user’s identity and filter results based on what similar users clicked. Facebook could use this to improve relevance of its internal search results. For instance, a search for a specific location of a national chain of restaurants could rank highest the Facebook Page most often clicked by others from the same city. Similar filtering could be done by age, spoken language, or education history.

The other patent for a distributed file system that can communicate between instances of desktop software fast enough to permit real-time searches. Facebook could use this technology to link instances of software being designed by its Seattle-based desktop software team. It could also prevent scaling issues in the even of data center failures.

Though 15 other Wowd engineers are now out of a job, the outcome of the company’s demise is relatively positive. Nearly half the company already have new jobs, some at Facebook, and the patent licenses should earn some money for Wowd’s former team. Facebook will benefit from this new talent and technology, and RockMelt is now left as the only serious Facebook desktop client.

Facebook Comments Can Now Display Photos, Play Videos, and Preview Websites

Posted: 21 Jul 2011 11:57 AM PDT

Facebook yesterday announced that when users post a URL in a comment, a preview of content from that page will be shown in-line. Similar to when users post URLs into the Facebook publisher for sharing to the news feed, comment reels can now show photos, play videos, and display blurbs and images from websites. Unlike wall and news feed posts, the content preview won’t appear until after the URL is published, but comment authors are then given the option to remove the preview.

The ability to show content previews of URLs in comments should make comment reels more engaging, keep users from having to click links blindly, and allow them to compellingly reference off-site content in conversations. It should increase referral traffic driven to third-party site by Facebook. However, it could be used to spam the comment reels of posts by popular Pages, showing their fans off-site content without consent.

Facebook has been adding new functionality to comments over the past few months. In March users gained the ability to tag comments with friends as well as Pages, Groups, Events, and apps they’re connected to. In April, it began allowing users to edit comments they’ve posted if they click the ‘x’ on a comment within a few seconds of posting it.

Previously, if users wanted to share a URL in a comment, the link would appear as simple text. Without some kind of image to attract eye balls, these links weren’t clicked as often as the quality of their content warranted. It also meant other users couldn’t tell where the link led by for clicking it, decreasing trust and increasing worry about being scammed such that users might not click through.

A Wide Variety of Rich Content

Now if a user posts a URL into a comment field and publishes, a preview of the URL’s content will appear in-line. The author can then click “Remove preview” if they wish to strip the rich content from the comment. Unfortunately, because the preview doesn’t appear while users are still composing their comment, they can’t choose the delete the URL but keep the preview as they can with wall and news feed posts. This means that a redundant instance of the URL will appear in the comment’s text, making the accompanying commentary by the author more difficult to read.

Photos can be posted in comments by publishing a link leading directly to an image file. If users post the URL of a Facebook photo, the preview will include a link to the photo’s owner and the album it is in. Videos from a variety of sites, including YouTube, Vimeo, Metacafe, and Hulu can be played in-line within comments. Users can share music by posting links directly to MP3s or to streaming sites such as Soundcloud, Grooveshark, and BandCamp.

URLs of websites without rich content will generate a preview that includes a blurb and a thumbnail image if available. Websites can control which images and text are included by marking up their pages with Facebook’s Open Graph tags. Unlike wall and news feed posts, users can’t edit the text of a preview’s headline or blurb caption.

Comment previews should help users find more interesting off-site content to consumer and allow them to click links more confidently. The ability to compellingly reference a news story or video relevant to a discussion should increase engagement and lead to longer comment reel conversations.

Pages will be able to use the feature to respond to comments on their walls with rich content. They’ll also be able to post rich content to the comment reels of other Pages to attract visitors. For instance, if one Page posts a simple text status update, another Page might be able to steal its thunder by posting a video as comment on the post.

More Referral Traffic, More Spam

Unfortunately, the functionality will probably create a new breed of spam. Disruptive parties could mark up phishing or other scam sites with Open Graph tags that make previews of them look innocent in order to trick users into clicking. Alternatively, spammers could use the markup to push eye-grabbing previews that get their message across without requiring users to click. Facebook may need to implement comment preview anti-spam systems to prevent these behaviors.

Overall, though, comment previews should enrich the user experience and increase the amount of referral traffic Facebook sends to third-party websites. Posts in comment reels send notifications to the original post’s author and other commenters. The rich content these notifications link to may inspire additional comments that in turn generate more notifications, causing comment previews to increase the frequency of return visits to the site.

The more referral traffic Facebook drives, the more that businesses and websites recognize Facebook’s influence. This leads them to devote more resources to optimizing their site through Open Graph tags, developing a presence through Facebook Pages, and buying Facebook ads.

Facebook Careers Postings: Engineering, Dublin, Counsel and More

Posted: 21 Jul 2011 09:09 AM PDT

Facebook added some varied posts to its Careers Page this week, and a handful of jobs on its LinkedIn feed. Some highlights include engineering positions, a data center job, some account management positions and a counsel position.

Posts added this week on Facebook's Careers Page:

  • Managing Editor, Corporate Communications
  • Software Engineer, IT Engineering
  • Data Center Site Selection Manager
  • Revenue Accountant – EMEA (Dublin)
  • Manager, Audio/Visual Support
  • CERT Engineer (Incident Response)
  • Law Enforcement Response Analyst (contract)
  • Policy and Operations Manager
  • Account Manager – CEEMEA
  • Client Partner – Italian (Dublin)
  • Account Manager – Polish (Dublin)
  • Account Manager – Czech (Dublin)
  • Analyst, Online Sales Operations – French (Dublin)
  • Analyst, Platform Operations – French & Spanish (Dublin)
  • Analyst, User Operations – Contractor (Palo Alto)
  • Engineering Manager, ERP
  • Recruiting Coordinator – Contract (Dublin)
  • Analyst, Product Analytics

Jobs posted by Facebook on LinkedIn:

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Facebook Hires and Departures: Interns, Engineering, Mobile, Communications and More

Posted: 21 Jul 2011 08:18 AM PDT

Facebook continued hiring a bunch of interns this week, according to the company’s Careers Page and LinkedIn feed, but also hired Jennifer Yuille to work in consumer media, a few engineers, and based on listings removed from the Careers Page, positions in marketing, mobile, business ops and more were filled as well.

New hires per LinkedIn and Other Sources:

  • Jennifer Yuille, Consumer Media – previously worked for Polyvore, CBS, MSNBC, and CNN.
  • Omid Rouhani-Kalleh, Software Engineer – formerly worked as a Senior Research Engineer at Yahoo! Labs.
  • Kingston Tam, Open Graph Intern.
  • Wei Liao, Software Engineer Intern.
  • Mircea Dima, Software Engineer Intern.
  • Rachel Fong, Software Engineering Intern.
  • Matt Dempsey, Product Design Intern.
  • Sarah Katz, User Operations Analyst – formerly worked in admissions at Vanderbilt University Office.
  • Po-chun Chang, Software Engineer – previously worked as a Senior Application Developer at Oracle.
  • Kenneth Kirchhoff, Analyst – previously a FACT Contract Coordinator at Maersk Logistics.
  • Mohammad Kotb, Software Engineer Intern.
  • Bruno Rahle, Software Engineering Intern.

Prior listings now removed from the Facebook Careers Page:

  • Platform and Mobile Researcher
  • Manager, Communications and Public Policy (Australia & New Zealand)
  • Corporate Counsel
  • Director, Business Operations (Global Direct Sales)
  • Relationship Manager, Agency Relations – London, UK
  • Manager, ERP
  • Account Manager (Amsterdam)
  • Client Partner – Slovak (Dublin)
  • Analyst, Platform Operations – Spanish (Dublin)
  • Manager, Merchant Services (Austin)
  • Manager, Merchant Services (Palo Alto)
  • Analyst, User Operations – Arabic (Dublin)
  • Strategist, Market Solutions – Financial Services (New York)
  • Marketing Communications Manager
  • Software Engineer 1106004
  • Web Application Engineer

Who else is hiring? The Inside Network Job Board presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

fredag den 22. juli 2011 at 07.42