Editor's note: Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable,a popular blog about social media. He writes a weekly column aboutsocial networking and technology for CNN.com.
London, England (CNN) -- Facebook dropped a bombshell on the tech industry last week in the form of a Web-wide"Like" button and the launchof the "Open Graph."
Using this new platform, Web sites can drive Web traffic from Facebook by including Like buttons on theirpages; every Like posts an update to that user's Facebook page.
What's more, any Web site can customize its experience for you, if you'relogged into Facebook: Suddenly CNN.com stories can be ranked not just byan editor but by your friends too.
Likes replace links?
Facebook announced Likes as a form of "social links" -- better than a link because it's related to a specific user. If Like buttons take off,that's really bad news for Google, since its algorithm uses linksbetween sites to determine their order in search results.
Facebook seeks to replace this open system of links between pages with the"social links" (or Likes) that it controls. Google and other searchengines won't have full access to all these Likes, so the company bestpositioned to rank the Web will be Facebook. No wonder the "open Web" advocates are sounding the alarm, concernedthat a single company will stockpile all of our personal informationand preferences.
Already there are calls to create an "OpenLike" standard that's accessible to all, reports Facebook watcher Nick O'Neill.
Facebook optimization?.
Can the measurement of an industry affect the output of that industry? If an Academy Award is the ultimate measure of a movie, dodirectors set out to create great films or Oscar-winning ones?
Appearing on the first page of Google results for your chosen search term isperhaps the online equivalent of an Oscar win.
As Google rose to become the barometer of all that's worthy on the Web, publishers rushedto change their sites to appease the Google god. "Search EngineOptimization" became a massive industry; a multitude of SEO consultantssprung up, offering to tweak your Web site to better fit Google'smeasure of the Web.
What if Facebook Likes take off? Or to use the proper jargon: What if the Open Graph becomes the measure of theWeb? Will publishers change their sites to appease our new overlord?
I'm already seeing it: Thousands of sites are adding Facebook's version of semantic data in preference to the open standards as Facebookbecomes the new kingmaker. In the week since launch, more than 50,000Web sites have added Facebook's "social plug-ins." All of which willmake it blissfully easy for Facebook to organize the Web:
Facebook Optimization may be the new SEO.
Open Web advocates have reason to be concerned. Privacy experts are also raisingred flags. No doubt they'll find an ally in Google: Without access tothe stitches that bind Web pages together, the search engine couldfalter.
