graph

Facebook intros 60 new Open Graph partners, opens to all

SAN FRANCISCO--Facebook's making its Open Graph initiative a little more open.

At an event here, this evening the company announced a crop of 60 new partners that have integrated their applications with Open Graph, as well as promising to approve new applications that make use of it.

The feature lets Facebook developers add real world actions to their applications, taking Facebook's sharing features beyond links and liking items to sharing what exactly that application does. Some of the early demo products that came with that introduction were Spotify, Netflix, and RDIO, with user actions in those apps showing … Read more

This engineering 'freeware' isn't free in our calculation

Eptsoft offers Electrical, Mechanics, and Maths as educational freeware. It includes a wide range of scientific and engineering formulas, calculators, and other tools in a series of clearly illustrated pop-up windows. It also has the most annoying and frustrating nag screen we've ever encountered in so-called freeware. It pops up every 20 seconds or so, obscures the entire screen, and must be closed manually to continue our "evaluation." You have to pay ("donate") to remove the ads and actually use the program. It's cheap, but it ain't free. Did we mention it's … Read more

Facebook planning to launch Open Graph actions tomorrow?

Back in September at the F8 Conference, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company would deliver a "frictionless" experience across the Web through applications. And starting tomorrow, he plans to make good on that promise, according to a new report.

The world's largest social network will be holding a press event in San Francisco tomorrow unveiling the first group of Open Graph actions that share user activities from outside the site with its users, All Things Digital is reporting, citing sources. The sources didn't say how many actions, which are basically simple applications, will launch as … Read more

Facebook launches 'Listen With' music button

Facebook is pumping up the volume on its Open Graph initiative by rolling out a feature that allows users to listen to songs with their Facebook friends.

The social network announced today the introduction of a "Listen With" button that lets users of music services such as Rdio and Spotify share the exact same song, at the same point in the song, via the music service. However, both parties will have to be registered users of the service.

A chat sidebar spotlights current listening opportunities with a music note. To listen, users hover their cursor over the user'… Read more

The 404 Yuletide Mini-sode: Where we recap the year in tech (podcast)

Welcome to another Yuletide episode from The 404 Podcast! We'll be publishing these podcasts, videos, and rerun episodes until we return on January 10 for a block of live shows from CES in Las Vegas!

This time we're running through all the big tech news from this year, including the launch of the iPad 2, Facebook Timeline, and the death of Steve Jobs.… Read more

Google adds graphing calculator to search

For those who have misplaced their TI-83 graphing calculator, Google has introduced a graphing tool that plots mathematical functions on the search results page.

Students and lovers of all things math need merely to type in a function to the Google search bar, and the tool will render an interactive graph, Google explained today in a company blog announcing the new tool.

"You can zoom in and out and pan across the plane to explore the function in more detail. You can also draw multiple functions by separating them with commas," Google engineer Adi Avidor wrote. "This … Read more

The 404 951: Where we undo a huge mistake (podcast)

Leaked from today's episode of The 404 Podcast:

Five years after its series finale, Netflix seals a deal for exclusive rights to a new season of "Arrested Development." Molly Wood fears the minefield of links spreading through Facebook's Open Graph sharing program. Publishers with Facebook apps like The Guardian are requesting access to your feed that automatically show your friends the articles, images, and music you consume. More than 200 independent record labels pull their music from streaming sites like Spotify, Rdio, Simfy, and Napster. Studies show that consumers care less about owning the music than about unlimited access to streaming tracks. Apple will open a flagship store in Grand Central Station tomorrow that spans 23,000 square feet and costs $800,000 a year in rent to the MTA.… Read more

What to make of Facebook's oversharing?

Facebook’s penchant for sharing everything you read via its Open Graph news apps caused quite a weekend stir. However, I wonder how far this flap goes beyond tech insiders and news junkies.

CNET’s Molly Wood set off a bit of a fire storm by noting that Facebook is ruining sharing. In a nutshell, she doesn’t want to click on any links on Facebook because they are broadcast to her friends. Chances are you’ve seen stuff a friend has read because they installed a news reader app from the Washington Post, Yahoo or a bevy of others.… Read more

How Facebook is ruining sharing

I'm afraid to click any links on Facebook these days.

No, it's got nothing to do with the spam attack and the flood of nasty images making their way into news feeds all last week. Instead, it's because the slow spread of Facebook's Open Graph scheme is totally ruining sharing.

I know you've seen this at the top of your news feed: a list of stories your friends have been reading. Or, simply, a single post with a great headline leading to a story that you'd really like to read. So you click it, … Read more