Today Mark Zuckerberg will give the keynote speech at the Facebook F8 event. It’s mainly for developers and businesses that want to work with Facebook, but what is announced will affect you on Facebook.
The biggest rumor about F8 is the launch of an e-commerce platform, perhaps like Paypal, or more likely as a partnership with a company like Paypal. The product could be an auto-fill feature for anyone logged into Facebook. So, if you are logged in, and making purchases on another website, you could click a ‘check out with Facebook’ button, which would give the site your payment details. This obviously means you’d have to give Facebook your payment details.
Another announcement could be about Facebook’s ad network. With recent developments like the ‘traveling to’ status updates, Facebook could offer partners (and users) better targeted ads, based on your personal data, like location. So, you could start seeing ads in Facebook about places you are going to visit. TechCrunch says the new ad network could be called ‘Facebook Audience Network.’
Another rumor is that there could be more standalone apps announced. Facebook Messenger has been successful. and Paper was very well received, even if it’s still a US only app. There might be apps for Events and Groups next, according to TechCrunch.
Lastly, a rumor seen on Secret suggested that Facebook might try to win more user trust, by blocking third party app access to your Facebook friends’ data. This would be popular with privacy advocates, but less so with developers who use Facebook data to power their services.
Stay tuned for coverage of Facebook F8.
Sources: TechCrunch, ReadWrite
