Facebook rolls out Recommendations Bar for websites

Facebook is trying to force itself into every aspect of your life, and it's succeeding at doing so. Today the massive social networking site rolled out a new feature called the Recommendations Bar, which will pop up when you're visiting to website to show you what your friends liked and shared from that website as well. The Recommendations Bar will pop up in the bottom right corner of your browser window – provided the website you're visiting has put the plug-in to use – much like Facebook chat does, encouraging you to check out the stories that are popular with your Facebook friends.

When you decide to like something you see in the Recommendations Bar, Facebook will publish the like to both your profile and your friends' news feed. Annoying maybe, but it seems to be working, as Facebook is reporting that early tests show a click-through rate that's three times higher with the Recommendations Bar than with the more familiar Recommendations Box. Hearing that, it seems like this Recommedations Bar will only become more popular as time goes on.

The Recommendations Bar is just the latest social plug-in Facebook offers to websites. CNET counts 11 Facebook plug-ins total, so it sounds like it won't be long before Facebook is a part of everything we do on the web. Expect to hear more about the success of the new Recommendations Bar soon, but in the meantime, be sure to check out our story timeline below for more information on Facebook!