Joanna Shield, VP and managing director for Facebook Europe, Middle East and Africa’s (EMEA), announced at the LeWeb 2011 that the company will soon rollout a Subscribe plugin for websites. This will make it even easier for Facebook users to follow feeds from a politician, news reporter, public figure, celebrity, Mark Zuckerberg’s dog Beast, artist, Facebook employee or other “notable” person. Essentially, it gives Facebook users the option to subscribe to sites like they already do on Twitter. Except now, users will be able to do that from within their Facebook profiles. Update: The Subscribe plugin is now live.
The Subscribe plugin for websites serves as a middle ground between receiving updates from people on Facebook and just a subscription to a publication in Google Reader. This new feature brings Facebook one step closer to becoming more Twitter-like both in terms of one-way subscriptions and ease of use. Is that a good thing?
Facebook rolled out its original Subscribe button in September. The purpose? Help users choose what they see, hear and read from users in their news feed. Users can choose how many updates they receive (all updates, most updates or only important updates) and what types of updates they’d like to see (life events, status updates, photos, games, comments and likes, music and videos, other activity).
The new Subscribe to websites button feature was announced right after the Facebook began rolling out Timeline in New Zealand.
Anyone who has already transitioned to Facebook Timeline knows that the new profiles are a mix of self-curation and frictionless-sharing. Timeline profiles have a profile photo nestled into the lower left-hand corner of cover photo, and everytime a user posts something it is dropped onto the left or right-hand side of the timeline.
With a new Subscribe button that lets users receive constant information from outside websites right in their Facebook News Feed, Facebook Timeline profiles start to feel more like curated “me magazines.” Whether a Facebook user chooses to turn that into a space for lifestreaming or a space for publishing news and information about their “brand” is up to them.
We reached out to Facebook for more information, but aside from the announcement the spokesperson had nothing more to share at this time.
What do you think of the new Facebook Subscribe plugin for outside websites?