Social video; Will facebook connect the dots?

According to ReadWriteWeb facebook connect is adding the social layer to video on the web. With discovery channel and hulu on board (as well as digg and geni) users are able to start ‘talking about’ what they see (and find on the web..digg) to their facebook connections. Not only profile data of facebook but as well friends connections can be added to the sites of hulu and discovery channel. RWW is mostly interested in the DIGG connection, but to be honest I find it much more interesting what is going to happen to the experience of hulu and discovery channel. Will the facebook connect enforce a more mutualy shared ‘watching’ experience of video on the web? Basically this was one of the strategic goals of building an embeddable videoplayer with social features for the Dutch Public Broadcasting in the project I was leading last year. It may not even be necessary to build this social layer, if the Dutch social networks start sharing their connections in a manner as facebook does.

And there is a good reason to belief they will, for it will only expand their user knowledge even more. Which in turn is off course very interesting information for advertisers in the long haul. Who is watching what and sharing it with whom,.. and what are the comments on the programmes content that are shared between friends.. As I have argued before, we need a whole new manner of looking at and valueing media-effects then as we do now. What facebook connect is doing, this use of the social graph, expanding it to other domains, is beginning to sketch a more clear picture of what the “search and find by friend” of social video will look like.. Eventually, when television will merge with the web even more, imagine how the new positions will be in this landscape… Social networks could very well be the new broadcasting networks of the future. I honestly think, that is not such an unlikely picture of the future of television and one to be reckoned with. It is certain powers will shift.