Last week, I was blown away by the announcements from F8. The Open Graph and the new technologies that support it are incredible, and you can already see signs of Facebook integration on many popular websites.

While the fact that Facebook has over 450 million users seems like enough to prove its worth to brands, this new expansion is another sign of the social phenomenon’s impressive reach to consumers.

I think this is just the beginning of a whole new level of social interaction. Instant connections to sites like Yelp and Pandora are sure to lend a new element to the emerging share culture. All of this is very cool and exciting. And yet…

"I'm sorry. I can't let you "Like" that, Dave."

Isn’t it a little scary? I mean, you don’t even have to be logged in for CNN.com to know which of your Facebook friends have “liked” the article you’re reading. It just knows. Like some all-knowing HAL 9000 character.

Facebook’s privacy policy and use of its user information has been the topic of serious debate and criticism lately, and I think that this new development will add heat to the fire. Do people really want that information out there? Does the idea of the opt-in still exist?

The next few weeks will grant us a much better view of how these new changes will affect businesses and their online presence, and I’m looking forward to having a front row seat. Also, next week our own Richard Ha will be updating from the Web 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, and I am sure he will have more insight to share.

Here’s some fantastic news for WordPress users: inspired by yesterday’s announcement at F8 about the Open Graph, we are introducing a new plugin that you can use for your WordPress site!

You can easily add the Facebook like widget to your blog with this download: wordpress-facebook-like-0.2

Please feel free to send us your feedback! How exciting!

An interesting concept was just brought up during F8’s Breakout Session on Mobile + Social.

“ ‘Checking In’ can actually change your behavior.”

So when you check-in to a local business with your favorite mobile application (mine is FourSquare), does your behavior change? Do you make your purchases differently? Were you driven to the location by an incentive provided by the application? All of these things have a lot of powerful people talking about the potential of location-based mobile games and apps.

It sounds strange, but I can absolutely see this behavioral change happening. For developers, I think that the long-term goal is always the same despite the function of the application or game: influence consumer behavior and drive traffic. As many of the most quickly emerging mobile applications are utilizing geolocation, these developers see location as the biggest and most important piece of the puzzle in terms of attaining that influence.

How have you seen this in action?

Facebook is hosting its annual f8 developer conference in San Francisco today. Think of a room full of young programmers all chomping at the bit for the latest and greatest from the site that now has over 400 million users – yeah, it’s exciting.

Mark Zuckerberg (founder of Facebook) just finished his keynote, wherein he announced some very extraordinary new developments. At the first annual F8 event, he introduced the world to the “Social Graph,” which mapped out people and their relationships. Today, Zuckerberg presented the “Open Graph.”

Your online identity isn’t restricted to just who you are and who you know. It also includes restaurants you enjoy (Yelp!), movies you like (IMDB) and the music you listen to. With that in mind, the Open Graph takes all these parts and connects them to create a more socially aware environment to offer personalized experiences everywhere they go. I know, it blew my mind too.

So how does that work? Let’s say you visit CNN.com and check out an article that interests you. Now, you will also see which of your Facebook connections “like” the article as well, and you will also have the option to “like” it. 30 partners will be launching this today. This new development doesn’t require you to login or anything – the site just knows.

It’s actually kind of scary when you think about it, and I have the feeling that many people are going to react with similar apprehension. Let’s see where it takes us though.

Top announcements to note:

• Open Graph Protocol – connects sites like Pandora, Yelp and CNN with your Facebook profile making more personalized experience
• Graph API – makes it simple to read and write connections
• Social Plugins – makes your site instantly social and personalized without any code
• Like button – br goes where you want it on the site and then you’re set
• Social Bar is the kitchen sink of Facebook plugins
• Facebook is adopting OAUTH 2.0 Standard

UPDATE: Changes already appearing on the Facebook homepage!