19 January 2012 | Author: R Wood Media Intern

Facebook Timeline gets appy

Following the roll-out of Timeline, Facebook has unveiled some 60 news apps to help users 'tell their story'.

Users who have upgraded to Timeline will now be able to add the new apps to their pages, telling their network of friends what they are reading, thinking, watching, and cooking, among other things.

"Timeline apps are for the activities you want to share with friends. You choose when to add an app, and you decide who can see it," director of platform Carl Sjogreen wrote on the Facebook blog.

"After you've added an app, you can always remove posts directly from timeline, and you can also edit your settings from your personal Activity Log."

Companies included in the launch of the new wave of apps include Urbanspoon, TripAdvisor, Pinterest, eBay, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, Monster, Foursquare, Kobo, Ticketmaster, GoodReads, Autotrader, Polyvore and Living Social.

"Soon, there will be apps for all types of interests, as more apps will launch over time. Whether you love snowboarding, gardening, hiking or knitting, or something else, there will be an app for you."

The interactive apps take the next step towards 'frictionless sharing' - Facebook's new permissions protocol means users will only have to give initial approval. Once an app is installed on a user's timeline, the app will be able to publish stories to a user's profile and news feed without asking permission.

Users however will be able to remove posts once they're published, and can limit who they share information with by grouping contacts into lists and changing app settings.

At the San Francisco launch of the new apps, Sjogreen also indicated Facebook anticipates 'thousands of applications' will be built for the platform in the coming weeks and months - a move that will encourage users to spend even more time on the social networking site.

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