What Do the New Timeline Apps Mean for You – and Facebook?

Kira M. Newman January 23, 2012 Tweet

In case you missed it, Facebook opened up new Timeline apps Wednesday so you can share even more with your friends. Among the additions:

What does this mean, besides even better targeted Facebook ads? (Check “How Apps Work” to see what apps can and can’t do with your information.) It means users can easily curate communities on Facebook by choosing whom to share posts with:

Facebook saw competition from Google+ in the form of circles, which were featured prominently right from the start. These new apps could be a way to encourage Facebook users to post selectively to different communities, which changes the experience from mass-broadcast to something more personal.

Beyond that, this new wealth of apps could help Facebook filter the stream of social content pouring through our news feeds, which they’ve recently tried to do by aggregating posts related to the same topic. For example, if you use the Foodspotting app all the time, that could signal to Facebook to show you more food-related posts from your friends; if you almost never use the TripAdvisor app, you might only see your friends’ most popular travel updates.

How do you like Facebook apps? Will you install any new ones?