With Facebook announcing a number of changes and new releases this week the interweb is buzzing with rumours that Facebook is trying to push Google off its throne and ‘take over the web’. These changes include, among others, the change of fan pages to resemble community pages, where fans are no longer fans but rather, can choose to ‘like’ a product, brand or service.

Another big change is Facebook’s Open Graph.  When users logged into Facebook earlier this week they were greeted with a message saying ‘connect with your friends on your favourite websites.’  This new feature is aimed at instant personalisation and will utilise the data on your Facebook profile to show you information relevant to your interests, and also to show you what information your Facebook friends found useful on that specific website.  According to CCN.com the new changes mean, “If you’re a Facebook user reading CNN.com, you’ll be able to see what all your Facebook friends are looking at, view recommended stories and see which friends liked which stories.”  Facebook said this new feature will enable users to more easily share information they find on the Internet with their social network.

Mark Zuckerberg said at the f8 Developer Conference that “we are making it so all websites can work together to build a more comprehensive map of connections and create better, more social experiences for everyone.”  Users can opt-out of the new feature but that does not mean your Facebook friends cannot share your information with the mentioned companies.

Read more about these and other Facebook changes:

• On CCN.com
• Article:  Facebook plans to take over the web
• Post:  Facebook announces a slew of big changes

A new home page for Twitter

Twitter introduced a new, more dynamic home page earlier this week and it seems as if Twitter is differentiating itself from other social networks by positioning their network as the foremost source for real-time updates.  This is reflected in their new description of their service:  “Share and discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world.”  The new home page include has a scrolling list featuring trending topics, a constant stream of tweets from random Twitter users and a box featuring current Twitter users inviting visitors to “See who’s here.” Do you like the new home page?

Facebook bug reveals private email addresses

For about 30 minutes on 30 March a bug made private email addresses public information on Facebook.  It seems as if the error occurred during a “regular code push” and thus far there has been no official explanation from Facebook.  In an online world where we’re all concerned with privacy this is a big blunder from Facebook’s side.

Posterous adds easy custom domain registration

Earlier this week Posterous announced their new one-stop domain registration feature.  With the new feature Posterous will take care of all the “geeky details” – all you have to do is register your personal domain and link it to Posterous.  The new feature integrates with Google and you can set up Google Apps like email, calendars and so forth easily on your domain.  At the moment only .com, .net or .org domains can be registered through Posterous.

Whilst updating the FormFunction fan page I came across a few interesting Facebook applications for fan pages and profiles you might find useful.

• The News24 app helps you stay up-to date with the latest breaking news from News24.com.
• Want to connect with others who enjoy reading and writing about the same topics as you? Join Networked Blog’scommunity for bloggers and blog lovers to promote your own blog and discover new blogs.
• Testimonialsis a handy app that gathers your professional, academic and personal references in one place.
• The Slideshare app adds all your SlideShare presentations to your Facebook fan page and you can upload presentations from either Facebook or SlideShare.
• Want to know how your fans feel about a certain matter? The Poll app allows you to customise polls and shows you graphs of user responses.
• Make the most of your current network and add a LinkedIn badge to your Facebook profile. The LinkedIn Profile app links to your business profile from Facebook.
• The EasyCV app allows you to insert a summary of your CV onto your profile page and will link to a more detailed version on a dedicated page.

Are there any other Facebook applications that you use and find worthwhile?