On April 27, 2009, Facebook announced it would open the entire activity stream via a new API. According to Ethan Beard, Facebook’s director of platform marketing, the new Facebook Open Stream API will be two-way, meaning developers can leverage the data but people will also be able to respond (for example to comments), via the third party applications. Developers will be able to use the entire feed via one simple API call, or use parts of the feed.

Some did not expect Facebook to become so open, as the company was previously very restrictive when it came to taking data outside of the community. Given intensifying competition from Twitter, who is very

Read the full story

TweetDeck has just announced it is adding support for Facebook Connect. TweekDeck is a desktop client side application that lets you Tweet and view messages directly from your desktop instantly.

You will now have the option of sending messages you create from TweetDeck to your Facebook status. Additionally, you will be able to login to Facebook chat from TweetDeck to chat with friends that are online indicated with a green status indicator dot. There are already a number of IM applications that let you use Facebook chat simultaneously with other IM platforms such as Digsby (Windows) and Adium (Mac).

Currently, TweetDeck accounts for about 16% of all tweets, followed by twhirl with 6.85% market share. 32% of all tweets are generated from Twitter itself. Read the full story