Facebook has announced a significant change to its status update feature for US users, and some others too (Yep, I'm Portuguese and I have it). Now you can express what you’re watching, reading, listening to, eating, drinking, and how you’re feeling with some unique tags. Furthermore, if you include certain Pages in your update, they will automatically show up on your Timeline.

Facebook offers up an example. If you are watching Jurassic Park and want to tell your Facebook friends about it, your shared post will now contain the movie icon and a link to the movie’s page. Here’s how it looks (This photo is a cortesy of Roddy Lindsay):

Facebook says when you do this, Jurassic Park, or the movie you're watching, now gets added to Movies section on your Timeline. The company says TV shows, movies, and books will appear in their corresponding sections:

This might be a slight problem as people may not realize that they are essentially adding pages to their profile. Unsurprisingly, Facebook is trying to head off privacy worries with the following statement: “These updates, and the stories added to your timeline, respect the privacy settings you choose for your post.”

As I said earlier, I already have the feature and I can offer a glimpse at how it works for those who don’t have it or can’t get it (remember: US only until further notice). First, there’s a new smiley face button, near the check-ip pin that when clicked, bring up a new menu where you can add what you’re feeling, watching, reading, listening to, drinking, or eating:

Selecting one of them lets you specify what you’re doing. For example, if I want to share what I'm watching “A Ressaca,” in english "The Hangover" (Awesome movie btw), Facebook will display the following:

Remember that this doesn’t happen all the time however, most likely because some items simply do not have official Facebook Pages.

For example, here's me eating a pizza:

Me playing Guitar like Slash 😉

It’s easy how Facebook will one day be able to take these status updates and sell ads around them. Yes, that's the Facebook big game! If someone chooses to share that they’re eating pizza a lot, Facebook may want to sell them ads (including promotional coupons) to Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Papa John’s, etc.!

More broadly, Facebook is expanding on its list of things that users “like” even when they don’t explicitly hit a Like button, you've may already saw that on your News Feed. That’s hugely important and once again can potentially be very valuable in a way that goes beyond what users simply search for.

Source: TNW

Nuno Ricardo Da Silva – Creative – Criativo – Comunicação Online – Online Communication – Web Design – Design – Porto – Design Porto – Web Design Porto – Designer Porto – Websites Baratos – Websites Profissionais