Meet Facebook, the Web’s Social Entertainment Operating System

[Commentary] Earlier this week, when networking goliath Cisco all but confirmed it had shut down an ambitiously named Entertainment Operating System (EOS), I suspect some folks at Facebook may have chuckled quietly to themselves. After all, the big social network, which is reportedly in negotiations with all sorts of entertainment companies to integrate their services, may have designs on becoming for real what the Cisco product was only in name: a social entertainment operating system for consumers. The growing importance of Facebook as a social entertainment layer is due to two main factors. First, the social Web is becoming the new EPG for a generation of consumers. Fading is the old-world model of corporate-programmed guides and tastemakers; ascending is a world where entertainment is personalized and social, and where much of it will be driven by Facebook. Second, time and place restrictions on media are going away, making way for anytime, anywhere on-demand consumption across any screen. And as these linear models break down and anytime-anywhere media consumption rises, Facebook can become the recommendation and consumption layer that enables, organizes and make sense of the media chaos.