(Image Source: CNET)

BY MADISON MACK

ANCHOR LAUREN ZIMA

Facebook released a slew of new features in September, most of which users initially rejected, then accepted, and eventually forgot about. But one of those features is still getting flak from the tech media – Open Graph. In case you’ve forgotten, CNET summed it up back in September.

“The other big change is Open Graph. This will let any app on Facebook seamlessly share everything you do. Like every time you go for a run. Every time you listen to a song or watch a show or watch a movie or read a news story.”   

Noticed the influx of posts from Spotify lately? A writer for CNET says this frictionless sharing is actually really annoying in practice – and that it’s ruining sharing.

“…Spotify song sharingis like the new FarmVille, … Sharing and recommendation shouldn't be passive. It should be conscious, thoughtful, and amusing--we are tickled by a story, picture, or video and we choose to share it, and if a startling number of Internet users also find that thing amusing, we, together, consciously create a tidal wave of meme that elevates that piece of media to viral status. We choose these gems from the noise. Open Graph will fill our feeds with noise, burying the gems.”

Another complaint? Every time you click on a shared item – Facebook prompts users to install software, which ReadWriteWeb says – violates a fundamental contract between web publishers and their users.

“When you see a headline posted as news and you click on it, you expect to be taken to the news story referenced in the headline text - not to a page prompting you to install software in your online social network account. That hijacking of your navigation around the web is the kind of action taken by malware. It's pushy, manipulative and user-hostile.”

But a writer at TechCruch says the proliferation of content available on the web requires new forms of sharing.

“ … we’ll need to learn to filter out the noise in reverse, opting out when we don’t want to share instead of opting in when we do. That’s a huge behavioral realignment that will take time and won’t come easy. If learned, though, we’ll be able to dance across the web from one piece of great content to the next, sharing it all effortlessly, and only having to stop when something deserves to be struck from the record.

And the Financial Times notes – early adopters of open graph have seen a surge in Facebook traffic.

“…the Independent – which has had some teething troubles with its new website – is happy to have the extra visitors. Since plugging into the open graph, traffic from Facebook has increased several times over. Even though it’s just a short case study, it’s a tantalising taste of the impact that open graph must be having on Spotify, Netflix and other early adopting partners.”