Facebook Actions help Words With Friends, CastleVille et al go viral

So, does this mean that blasting your friends with cow adoption notices is finally back? Not quite. Facebook announced Actions and Timeline Apps on Wednesday, a new initiative with the help of 60 plus content partners to bring new shared content to users' Timelines, the brand new Facebook profiles. Of course, game developers like Zynga and Wooga were in on the deal, bringing in CastleVille, Words With Friends, Diamond Dash and Bubble Island, respectively.

That's because Actions allows Facebook-connected apps and games to post information about your interactions within those apps or services to your Timeline in real time. And social game makers want to be all over your Facebook presence as much as possible. (Remember the social game virality crisis of 2010?)

For instance, if you were to "Like" eBay on Facebook, and then were to bid on an item through the website, that information would be automatically posted to your Timeline and the News Ticker on the Facebook home page. Now, this function is already integrated into most Facebook games, but solely through the Ticker. Now, say you were to play a mean triple word score in Words With Friends on Facebook. Facebook would automatically post that score to your Timeline in a short blurb.

That is, of course, assuming you allow it do that. Facebook offers users full control over how apps and games interact with the Timeline and Ticker from the App Settings menu. Game makers seem to hope that this will help restore some virality (i.e. natural, social spread) to their games, but that all depends on how often players visit friends' Timelines, no?

[Via Gamasutra]

Do you like the idea of Actions on Facebook? Will Actions do anything for the growth of new or existing Facebook games? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.