Browsers have been slow in catching up with social media. Built in sharing options have been limited so far. Internet Explorer 8, which is still in beta, attempts to change that with new feature called Webslices. IE 8 site describes WebSlices in these terms -

Users commonly visit many websites several times a day to check for updates. The introduction of RSS feeds can make this experience easier for users, although RSS feeds requires a nontrivial amount of work on behalf of the developer.

WebSlices is a new feature for websites that enables users to subscribe to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds in that users can subscribe to them and receive update notifications when the content changes. Websites are polled at user-defined intervals, similar to the way RSS feeds are polled. Website operators may also define a minimum wait time between polls to minimize requests.

Developers can mark parts of webpages as "WebSlices" and enable users to monitor information they rely on as they move about the web. With a click in the Favorites bar, users see rich "WebSlice" visuals and developers establish a valuable, persistent end-user connection. Get started building WebSlices at the Microsoft Developer Network.

It's bit surprising to see Facebook actually using this technology in status updates.

Check out detailed overview in scribd attachment:

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Blog Attachments

webslices.pdf (PDF, 681K)

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