In an effort to murder MySpace in cold blood create more of a rapport between Facebook Pages and third-party websites, Facebook has launched the “fan box.”
Aside from sounding vaguely obscene, the Fan Box is a widget for companies, bands and brands to embed on a site to promote Facebook Pages. Adding the function involves merely including a snippet of Javascript code on your site. Operating somewhat like that handy little “share” button, it lets site visitors fan your Facebook Page with one click. From Inside Facebook :
“Users can view the most recent posts from the Page, see a list of other fans (including their friends), and, most importantly, become a fan without leaving the site,” Facebook Product Manager Mark Kinsey says. “Additionally, if a user visits the site and isn’t logged in to Facebook, the user can log in and become a fan directly inline as well.”
In other words, users can authenticate themselves to the widget using Facebook Connect in order to become Facebook fans without leaving your page. Later, when logging into Facebook, fans will see your updates in their stream just as they would any other Page they had become a fan of inside Facebook.com.”
The new feature is doubtlessly of huge importance to musicians and companies who wish to leverage their social media following more effectively. But in the whole debate over whether Facebook has killed MySpace, the one redeeming value constantly cited to keep MySpace alive is “the music.” The last big story about MySpace was regarding massive layoffs. Will this function put the final nail in MySpace’s coffin?
