Yesterday, I barely opened my Facebook account because it took 10 years just to go through my home page.  So imagine my surprise when I saw it this morning.  It looks different – again!  It seems like Facebook’s making a habit of it, especially since the launch of Google+.  Could they feel threatened?  That’s a possibility though there are still far more Facebook users that Google+ users.  Still, it doesn’t hurt to spice things up a bit to keep your audience interested, and Google+ isn’t a rival to be taken lightly.

Facebook had already launched the new features ahead of their f8 Developer Conference, which kicks off tomorrow in San Francisco.  Last week, Facebook launched the improved Friends List, which features the Smart List, Close Friends and Acquaintances List and the Better Suggestions – kind of like Google+ Circles.  This was followed by the launch of the “Subscribe” button, which functions much like Twitter’s follow button. It lets you choose what you see from people in the News Feed, even if you’re not friends with them.

And now their latest update is on their News Feed with a new feature called “Ticker.”  So what’s new about the News Feed?  It’s like your personal newspaper that highlights the top stories, all featured in a single stream at the top of the page.  An additional feature you’ll find in the top or most recent feeds is the “blue corner.”  It’s a way of earmarking content.  The Ticker itself gives you real-time updates as to what your friends are up to, like if they changed their profile photo or recently made a new friend, or change their status update.

But they’re not stopping there.  According to AllThingsD, their f8 conference will greatly focus on content and will revolve around their basic phrasing: “Read. Watch. Listen.”.  Some sources believe that this theme signifies that Facebook is creating a path to bring media sources to Facebook.  “Read” partners will include big online publishers such as Yahoo, while “Watch” will be a range of Web video sites and “Listen” will be music services such as Spotify, Rhapsody and Rdio.  The “Like” button is said to be getting an upgrade to allow users to flag Web pages or other online content with specific recommendations, such as “Read,” “Watched” or “Listened,” according to a source with knowledge of the matter.

Facebook is also said to be aiming for better Twitter integration.  Before, only certain pages can be linked to Twitter, but the upcoming update, rumored to be launched also during the F8 Conference, will now allow personal profiles to be linked in their existing Twitter accounts.

As for Google+, they tried to steal the spotlight from Facebook’s upcoming conference when they launched the Hangouts API for developers, enabling them to build real-time applications on their own, similar to the built-in YouTube player that Google developed. Developers need to register the application with Google+ team and specify who from their group can load it into a Hangout.

Additional features include Google Doc editing, screen sharing and sketching.  Aside from this, Hangouts are also available on the latest version of the Google+ app on Android smartphones.  Also, it includes the ability to search for information about topics such as cooking and photography, along with the ability to see relevant Google+ users and their posts on such topics, as well as relevant content from around the Web.

But this is probably the most important enhancement on Google+: it’s now open to the public.  Google+ already has over 25 million unique visitors per month but this is expected to increase with their public launch.  And finally, display ads in Google+ will soon sport +1 buttons so users can recommend ads to their Circles or fellow Google+ users.

But the +1 button will not be limited for advertisers in the Google Display Network.  According to a Google spokesperson, “Google wants to extend the +1 buttons as broadly as possible and will explore making it available to advertisers even if they don’t advertise through the Google Display Network.”