Having been a little negative in the past about Facebook’s platform developments (some publicised, others, of course not), I have to say, things have really been hotting up over the past few week with a raft of new changes being introduced. Some of these changes have been in reaction (never a great place to be) to Google +’s introduction a few months back –  easier filtering of friends into specific categories (called ‘lists’) and targeting of messages.  Others, however are really starting to show the integral nature of Facebook’s ‘open graph’ and the impact this has on how we share content, the content we are served and the content we subsequently engage with and share – oh, and the sophistication of data then available to marketers to target their ads.  Each element of your social sharing is now there in your news feed, ready to be interacted with by others. Even the more lightweight/less interesting pieces of information (‘xxxx has just commented on their own status’) can be found in the right-hand side ticker box. Apps are seamlessly – cue Zuckerberg’s term ‘frictionless’ – integrated as part of this. Participating in games, listening to music is now part of your day to day activities – you no longer have to ‘like’ or ‘comment’ – you simply just have to ‘do’.

And my thoughts on the new profile layout – a ‘This is your (what I want to share about myself) life’? I don’t mind it. It may be optimistic of Facebook to assume that people can be bothered to go back and add content from years gone by, but the way the profile displays information is interesting. It is certainly a confident step – positioning the platform at the centre of our day to day living. Ok – I may have thought about this for too long, but let’s not kid ourselves, this is what Facebook wants and this is how they will build detailed profiles of us as individuals which then can and will be sold.

From a brand perspective – the changes are real improvements. Insights hopefully will start adding some value and the ‘people are talking about’ snapshot is a great way to compare yourself to other brands. And with the Discussions tab now being removed this should give brands more control over where conversations are happening on their page – plus removing something that really was surplus to requirements.

So, I’m excited. These changes are real improvements and demonstrate how Zuckerberg’s vision for the platform is really starting to come to fruition.