Facebook Announces Media Partnerships at the meeting

At Facebook’s F8 annual developer conference, the company announced that it was teaming up with media companies like Netflix and Spotify to let users update their feeds with information about what they are listening to, watching and reading.

The conference didn’t open with any new company announcements but rather with Andy Samberg, a comedian on “Saturday Night Live” who often plays Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder. After he spent several minutes poking fun at Facebook, the real Mark Zuckerberg appeared on stage.

Mr. Zuckerberg soon jumped into discussing new features on Facebook. He touted the growth of Facebook in recent years, noting that the company reached a milestone last week “when half a billion people used Facebook in a single day.”

Mr. Zuckerberg said one of the problems with Facebook is the profile page. Over the years, he said, the profile page has become difficult to navigate, and it is hard to find older posts. To solve this problem, Facebook is releasing a product called Timeline. Mr. Zuckerberg said Timeline “has three pieces: all your stories, all your life and a new way to express who you are.”

Timeline offers a highly visual view of a user’s Facebook profile and organizes content into photos, events and apps, all based on a timeline view that stretches back to the beginning of a user’s time on Facebook.

Timeline is designed to work on mobile devices too, offering a visually immersed stream. “It’s the story of your life,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.

Mr. Zuckerberg said the company was updating the Open Graph, the company’s developer platform. These updates will create “real-time serendipity,” allowing people to engage with their friends’ activities online beyond just “liking” something.

For example, if a friend updates his Facebook status to note that he is listening to a song on Spotify, the online music service, you will be able to click on the link and listen to the song together, at the same time. The Spotify track will also play directly within the Facebook page.

But the new developer updates go beyond music to include videos, gaming and news. Facebook has partnered with more than a dozen developers and music platforms including Spotify, iHeartRadio and Rdio. The company’s video partners include Netflix, Hulu and Blockbuster.

Brett Taylor, Facebook’s chief technology officer, appeared on stage to discuss the technical aspects of the new Open Graph. In particular he talked about Graph Rank, which he said acts as a kind of artificial intelligence for Facebook users.

Mr. Taylor said Graph Rank will change and organize a user’s Timeline view based on a number of criteria, including the time of day and friends’ activities.