Pre-Gaming Facebook F8

According to popular legend, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once kept two versions of his business card in his wallet–one with the title CEO, the other with “I’M CEO…BITCH.” Seems that before Facebook became the de facto platform of the attention economy, it was a platform for the attention-starved.

Well, there will be no shortage of attention for the social networking phenom today as it kicks off its third f8 developer conference in San Francisco. As in years past, Zuckerberg’s keynote address will include an update on Facebook’s present and future and a slate of noteworthy announcements. Among those expected: A “presence bar,” a toolbar that permits members to use their Facebook identities to log into third- party Web sites that agree to use it.

Also likely on tap: A universal “like” button. Along with the company’s already ubiquitous “share” button, it will allow members to draw more of the Web into Facebook’s so-called “social graph.” Stumble across a page you enjoy, click one of those buttons, and that page will be added to your Facebook stream and the social networking site’s search results.

Finally, Zuckerberg may announce a geolocation feature that associates user actions with the locations where they occur. Similar to Foursquare’s location-based social networking service, this feature will enable Facebook members to note their location while writing their status updates. If it takes off, it will give Facebook a nice little foothold in the local advertising market.