Five big changes introduced by Facebook

There's not much buzz coming out of Facebook headquarters off-late. Maybe the disastrous IPO has forced the company to quieten down a bit publicly, but that hasn't dampened the enthusiasm of company's developers.

Quietly, Facebook has rolled out quite a few features in the last week or so. While some of them are big changes which could have far-reaching consequences in the industry, others have more humble targets. Here are five changes introduced by Facebook the past week.

1) Facebook ads on third-party websites
Perhaps the biggest change since its IPO, Facebook ads have made their first-ever appearance on a website outside of Facebook. Zynga, Facebook's long-time partner, became the first website to show Facebook ads to its customers. Since players use Facebook to login to the popular gaming website, Zynga will be able target ads based on information users have already shared with Facebook.

The move is being seen as the first step towards Facebook setting up its own ad-network, competing directly with the likes of Google. It has also reignited the privacy debate, since users are worried that information they've shared with Facebook may be passed on to third-party websites for a few advertising dollars.

See: Zynga.com to show Facebook ads

2) Find Friends Nearby
Announced without any fanfare or even so much as a blog post, Find Friends Nearby allows users to find other site users present nearby. The new feature locates Facebook users in the vicinity via geo-location and displays them in a list. Though it has not yet been officially announced, Find Friends Nearby is already available for mobile web users on iOS and Android via m.facebook.com/friendshake.

See: Facebook's 'Find Friends Nearby' helps locate people around you

Update: Facebook has pulled the plug on Find Friends Nearby feature. Details.

3) Comment Editing
Until Facebook started rolling out comment editing, late last-week, the only way to fix a typo was to delete the entire comment and repost the 'fixed' comment. With the new comment-editing feature, users can go back and edit or delete their comments even on existing status messages. They can also view the edit history by clicking on the option "edited" that appears right below the comment, so that everyone involved in it can view full context of the conversation.

See: Facebook starts rolling out comment editing

4) Pay in local currencies instead of Facebook Credits
Facebook is rolling out changes that will let users pay developers using their preferred currency, rather Facebook Credits. Presently, Facebook developers can accept payments for their apps only in the form of Facebook Credits. In 2009, Facebook, introduced a payment system Facebook Credits or a virtual currency was mainly used to buy virtual goods in games like FarmVille. Last year, 15 million users bought virtual goods on the site using its payments service.

"We will release local currency support for in-app payments in the next few months. Any apps or games that sell virtual items will be required to use local currency by the end of the year," Facebook said.

See: Facebook to allow users to pay in local currencies soon

5) Developers can charge subscriptions
Facebook will let app developers charge subscription fees, in addition to existing one-time payments, for games and other applications on its site. The change is expected to be rolled out as early as July. This will enable developers to charge users a monthly or quarterly fees for their premium products or services. Until now, users could only make a one-time payment for applications.

This, combined with ability to pay directly in currencies instead of Facebook Credits, is likely to renew interest of developers in the Facebook platform.

See: Facebook to let developers charge subscriptions starting July

(With Agency Inputs)