The ever exciting world of social network APIs took a giant leap forward over the weekend with the announcement of Facebook’s FQL, which stands for “Facebook Query Language.”
Basically, this allows developers to string together scripts that can query the Facebook databases for all kinds of information. Here are a few ways the language could be used within Facebook:
- Play Yente. Find out if any of your single friends share interests. Then fix them up.
- Suggest Media. Find out which of your friends you have the most in common with when it comes to movies, music and books. Then rely on their other preferences when deciding which media to consume.
- Stalk Rivals. Think your current S.O. might still carry a torch for a former flame? Keep track of her relationship status and pay attention if he starts acting weird when she breaks up with her boyfriend. ::inserts tongue in cheek::
Those are just a few ideas that come readily to mind, based on what I know of the language. Although I think that last one might be a little farfetched. But there’s already a script that will tell you which of your friends are in relationships.
I don’t need to tell you that the more cool little functions like this a social network has, the more of a draw it becomes for users. These features also empower exisiting users to talk about your products in completely new ways. If you’re in any facet of media right now, you want to be especially aware of how this could play out because Facebook’s profile features focus heavily on media preferences.
And if you’re a politico of any stripe, you want to be paying special attention to the election features that Facebook implemeted before last year’s midterm. The query language could be a way to identify and court potential supporters on a large scale based on who they supported last time around.
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