Facebook unveils new music, movie tools

Facebook Inc. chief executive Mark Zuckerberg unveiled new ways for members to use the social network to share music, movies, TV shows, news and activities such as cooking and exercising.

Zuckerberg, speaking at the F8 developers conference in San Francisco Thursday, said the new features will include partners such as Spotify Inc., Hulu Llc and Rdio Inc. The service will let users see the history of songs played and listen together, he said. The new design is aimed at letting users express themselves, he said.

"Being able to click on someone's music and play it is a great experience," Zuckerberg said. "Knowing that you helped a friend discover something new and that they liked your taste in music and that you have that in common is awesome."

Facebook, owner of the most popular social-networking service, is beefing up its features to entice users to spend more time on the site. It's chasing rivals Apple Inc. and Google Inc., which also offer video and music services. The additions may make Facebook more of a destination for entertainment, said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner Inc.

"They're looking to expand this beyond the social network into a core platform tying together all of user experiences," Gartenberg said. "It's now about your music, your movies, and what you're reading. It's the ability to share more information and to do it in a streamlined manner and to make sure that people are spending more time on Facebook."

Zuckerberg also introduced tools that will let users display images and highlight which posts are important. The Timeline feature will show photos, status updates and locations in a more graphical format, and will include privacy controls, Zuckerberg said.