What just happened? Facebook just took over the Internet, that’s what.

The first time I ever heard of Facebook was the day after the terrible Virginia Tech Massacre (April 2007), when one student reportedly informed her family that she was safe via her Facebook status.  At the time, it was a relatively new web platform that was beginning to dominate the US College market, taking over from Myspace.

A lot can happen in the space of three years, especially when it comes to technology. This week, TechCrunch, a group-edited technology blog said this; “All the momentum is behind Facebook and how they are changing the web, and our culture.”  That’s a dramatic achievement in a short space of time.

And now it’s official, Facebook just took over the Internet.  I’m not joking.  They did.  Literally, last Wednesday.

At Facebook’s F8 Conference for developers, they announced some startling new initiatives that are going to revolutionise the entire Internet.

Before I share these with you, let’s put Facebook’s place on the Internet  into perspective:  At the last F8 Conference in 2008, Facebook had just under 100 million users.  Last week, Facebook announced that they now have over 400 millions users.  And it’s growing faster than ever before.

Not impressed?  Then consider this: 500 million people visit Facebook each month.  Only Google, Microsoft and Yahoo have more monthly visitors than Facebook.  Only Google has more page views.  Some are predicting that one year from now, Facebook will be second on the Internet for numbers of unique visitors and two years from now, they’ll be first.

So what?  Well, Facebook is not a search engine and it doesn’t manufacture products.  The key thing to think about is that it’s a social network.  It’s designed to connect you with the world.  These numbers and predictions alone are enough to paint a pretty clear picture about what the future of the Internet will be like – a giant social network designed to deliver tailor-made solutions to ensure a rich and very personalised digital experience.

And the heartbeat of all of this will be Facebook. This is not a three year fad.  Some are predicting Facebook will dominate the Internet for at least the next ten years.

Early in 2008, Universal Mccann completed the third wave of a comprehensive International research project into the impact of social media.  They pointed out that social media had been around for a long time in the form of message boards, blogs and peer to peer communication among other things.  But what had changed, they said, is the “mass involvement that social media platforms inspire.”  And that was in 2008.  They also said that the fragmentation of social media networks available on the Internet suggested that a truly global platform was impossible.  Right on the first point.  Very very wrong on the second.

Facebook has now swallowed up its rivals, and they’re aiming to make the Internet a giant social network.  In a bold statement last week, they said “Social connections are going to be just as important going forward as hyperlinks have been for the web.”  That’s a huge call.  Hyperlinks are what gave birth to the Internet in the first place.  Are they saying the Internet will have a kind of second birth?

So what have they done?  They’ve unveiled a plan to take Facebook out to the rest of the Internet. In essence, when people surf the net, they’ll be taking their personal information with them to other websites enabling those sites to deliver a much more personalised experience.  The result, as described by Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook, is “…Instantly social and personalised experiences wherever they go.”

Let me give you an example; when you now visit CNN.com, you’ll find a Facebook plugin on the top right hand side of the screen (highlighted in the image above).  Here you will be able to click on the “Like it” button for any page or article.  This will then post that article into the live feed in your Facebook profile.  Not only will you be able to recommend this article to friends in your network, but you’ll be able to also see, when you visit CNN, which of your other friends like that website or article.  You’ll also be able to check out what your friends have been doing on that site – commenting on blogs, recommending articles to their friends etc.

These new initiatives will essentially create what they’re calling an “Open Graph”.  This is a concept where everything on the internet is connected together. To do this, Facebook will enable developers to mark up their pages with meta tags to tell Facebook what type of real world object their page represents.  This will allow websites to send information back to users on Facebook who like or connect themselves to something.  To give you another example, if I visited a music site, I could instantly get information on what my friends like and recommend, which music those in my networks and even my local area are listening to as well as which music the site thinks I would like based on what I’ve indicated I have “Liked” on other websites.  All this could be presented to me even if I have never visited that site before.

Facebook are aiming, as MG Siegler of Techcrunch says to become the “fabric of the Internet.”  I think it’s more like the heartbeat and its beat cannot be underestimated. This development will change the Internet forever, there’s no doubt about it. I believe this is just the beginning, although it’s difficult to imagine what might come next.

How might this dramatic development affect the church?  Or Bible engagement?  I shall explore some ideas over the coming weeks.  In the meantime I feel I need to make this statement to the wider church and Christian ministries alike: ignore Social Media at your peril.  It must become a part of your strategy and communication as you move forward.  And you can’t “wait and see” what transpires.  We in ministry have to get on board now and help shape the future.

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