If you’re wondering what social TV might look like in the future, look no further than Socialtape. Right now, it’s an iPad app, but if this were on my TV it would be a show I would watch every single night.

Love how CNN is visualizing the conversation in it’s Politics section.  The color blocks on the right represent different broad conversation topics and their popularity.  When you hover over a conversation block, it highlights the stories that are related to the topic.  Very cool and very useful.

http://www.aviary.com/creation?fguid=cbb73878-2ca3-11e1-b65f-12313b101135

Yes - Jumo is in beta, but come on.

With Facebook’s announcement of the ability to publish updates to connected users – that is, users who click on your Like Button – I thought I’d post a walkthrough of just how easy it is to implement and utilize.

You can easily grab the code for a Like Button at http://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/plugins/like.  Use their configurator, and place the code on your site or blog.  You notice that if your like button is 450 width or wider, a user now has the ability to comment from the plug-in.  If a user adds a comment to their Like using the social plug-in, a post with their comment and a shared link will appear on their wall.

You’ll also need to provide a list of administrators (essentially these are Facebook users who can send updates) by using an fb:app_id or fb:admins meta tag. 

Once you’ve done this your button will function properly and you’ll be able to send updates to your connected users.  If you don’t configure an administrator, users will see an error after liking your content - so be sure to set up your administrators!

Administrators will see a Page Admin screen - which may be confusing since you might not have a page. Although you can see in this image that it’s straightforward to create a Facebook page and roll users into your Facebook presence should that become part of your strategy:

This is nice - you can target updates to users based on their location, sex, and/or age. You can also attach a video or a link to your message.

Updates appear within a user’s inbox within their Updates folder.  Note that this isn’t the top level of an inbox and a user may have to click on the folder to see their updates.

There you have it, communicating with your userbase through Facebook is simple - with a page or without.  If only successful marketing could be as easy. 

The ability to communicate to users who like a product, brand, celebrity (or any entity on the open graph for that matter) is an early example of how powerful Facebook’s Open Graph really is – but keep your eye on the ball - communication to users is only the first of many possible uses.  

The fact that Facebook makes such power so easy to use is a testament to why they’ve grown so large in the first place. 

The Xbox Live Preview updates the popular gaming console to bring social networking to your TV. With the update, you’ll be able to access your Facebook, Twitter, and Last.fm accounts from your Xbox…. which effectively brings all of these social services into your living room, or wherever you have your Xbox connected.

Twitter on your Xbox

Twitter on the Xbox is a vanilla implementation, but the overall effect of reading and tweeting from your console is pleasant. It’s a very accessible implementation - but it’s also where the realities of the Xbox experience will hit you the hardest. Namely, you can’t browse the Internet from your Xbox… so all the links that your tweeps are sharing and conversing about will be utterly, annoyingly useless. It’s the most glaring issue with the notion of bringing social functionality to the Xbox… without built-in Internet browsing - how engaging can these services be?

Here’s an example… it’s hard to read, but of the four tweets listed in this photo - 3 have links. Can I follow any of these links from my Xbox? Nope. So, you can imagine how hard it is to follow up on these conversations.

The lack of a keyboard as standard equipment on the Xbox (or any console for that matter) means that for most users entering just 140 characters will be an amazingly painful experience. You’re going to want one of these.

Facebook on your Xbox

To access Facebook or Twitter from your Xbox you’ll need to go to the “My Community” section. This to me is another example of how the overall social implementation could be much more interesting. Ultimately, services like Facebook or Twitter work best when they augment what you’re already doing… like surfing the web, or posting photos, or in this case playing games or watching TV. Why not hook into Facebook from your console to brag about your achievements, or chat about what you’re playing or watching? Sure, there are other ways to post these types of updates, but a social platform integration with the Xbox experience would be a much more compelling experience. I’m sure this will eventually come about in one way or another - but for now the experience is still largely a siloed experience. Social silos within another social silo.

Facebook helpfully shows an image of the Xbox 360 Messenger Kit. Again, this is a must have unless you’re a complete masochist.

It is nice to be able to connect easily to Facebook friends who also have Xbox LIVE accounts. This has been a chore in the past - as the Xbox Live and Facebook social graphs were difficult to associate. Once you login from your Xbox, you’ll notice an Xbox LIVE application added to your Facebook profile.

The Facebook Xbox interface is easy to use, though the Xbox Experience card model is a bit forced at times. On the home screen, for instance, the first card cycles through your friends most recent status updates.

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Updating from your Xbox works like a charm and shows the client as “Xbox LIVE”.

Photo albums are easily the best part of the Facebook implementation as you can now view slideshows of your photos (or your friends) on “the biggest screen in your house.” The slideshow implementation is almost exactly like the standard Xbox slideshow… think Ken Burns without the music. Once you watch a few, it’s easy to see how quickly Facebook could be at the center of your living room.

Apart from the slideshow, you can click into a photo and read the comments - or rather, parts of the comments. Here’s another place where the card model seems a bit forced… comments and captions are often truncated as a result.

But overall the photo functionality is slick… and the ease of browsing your photos and those of your friends will surely inspire a whole new level of creeping.

But the same content problems on Twitter are even more painful on Facebook. Not only can you not click on shared links - you also can’t view videos or use any Facebook applications. This makes it in my mind the least functional version of Facebook I’ve seen… you can’t view links, you can’t view videos, you can’t use apps, and there isn’t any significant upside to this lack of functionality since you can’t tie into your Xbox activity directly. Unless you count the slideshow, that is.

Last.fm on your Xbox

The implementation of the Last.fm music discovery service on the Xbox is fantastic. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the service, Last.fm is a service similar to Pandora in that it recommends music to a user based on a user’s tastes - the end result being a personalized radio station that still exposes a user to new music. Read more on the service here.

You can now scrobble from your Xbox (note that you like or dislike a song). I know you’re excited. Those of you with smartphones know that services like Pandora and Last.fm get better the more you interact with them - so the ability to scrobble is significant.

Once you log in you’ll find all your existing stations and history. Once you start listening the interface is simple - displaying the familiar icons of the Last.fm service. Additionally while a song is playing, you can pull up biographical information on the band.

And the best part is, as you’re listening to a station, Last.fm cycles through slideshows of whatever band is playing. It’s a simple Ken Burns effect, but still a nice touch, and makes the experience perfect for parties or background music.

Oh, but what have we here? I didn’t see an advertisement - but I did see this placeholder for one. Hopefully they won’t interrupt the playlist and will just show in the background…. but without the ability to act on these spots as you would with say an online banner - I’m guessing these are going to function more like TV spots and less like online - which means you should expect commercial breaks with sound.

Overall Impression

While it is great to have the option to access these social services, the experience also has great room for improvement. Without a keyboard of some sort, I’d say don’t even try to access the services - you’ll find just signing in to be a horrible chore. And even with a keyboard, the inability to watch videos or even view links on the Xbox takes much of the utility and, dare I say, fun out of these popular social services. These are internet-based services after all… links are important.

Bottom line: for now if you have any type of smart phone, you’ll probably end up continuing to use it while you’re on your couch… at least you can view the links your friends are sharing… maybe you’ll scrobble or share some photos on that big screen of yours, but chances are … for accessing your social networks, the Xbox will come in a distant third, behind your desktop and your phone.