FROM: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-01-18/facebook-lifestyle-apps/52653014/1
By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY
SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook is dramatically expanding Timeline, the re-imagining of its user interface, in a move that could delight consumers and vex some security experts.
Payvment's Shopping Mall app on Facebook.
Thursday, it will unleash more than 60 apps for Timeline ranging from fitness (Nike) and events (Ticketmaster and Ticketfly) to food (Foodspotting) and movies (Rotten Tomatoes). The aim is to give Facebook's 800 million members additional reasons to spend more time on the site, by sharing their experiences with others as they happen.
The apps avalanche is the next stage in the development of Timeline and a major part of Facebook's push to maintain its competitive edge over Google+, which has about 40 million members. Late last year, Facebook got a face lift in the form of Timeline. Since then, it has methodically released apps — including a "Listen with" button that lets up to 50 members listen to songs at the same time.
"For the first time on the Internet, consumers can share with others what acts they are planning to see," says Andrew Dreskin, CEO of Ticketfly. "For example, on Timeline, you can say you plan to see Radiohead in San Jose in April."
Millions already use music, video and other apps designed for Timeline. But the prospect of hooking users on apps that show when they exercise, where they shop and what they listen to — as they do it — should have marketers and advertisers salivating, analysts say. "There is nothing more that advertisers and marketers like than knowing the frequency and relevance of a consumer's habits," says analyst Patrick Moorhead, principal at Moor Insights & Strategy.
At the same time, Facebook has its eye on a potential mega initial public offering in the first half of 2012 that could raise an estimated $10 billion and value Facebook at more than $100 billion. "Facebook is merely trying to leverage its standing as a service that has become part of our lives," says Anjelika Petrochenko, general manager of LiveJournal blog service.
Facebook "grows through absorbing people and ideas," such as check-in services and messages, Petrochenko says.
Still, the notion of sharing so much personal information with so many others could be enticing to hackers in pursuit of valuable data. "Facebook is a malevolent multiplier," says Alisdair Faulkner, chief product officer at computer-security firm ThreatMetrix. "It's turning cybercrime into an armchair sport."
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