However, adoption of the new functionality will be slow due to "concerns around privacy and immaturity in how to do these things effectively," he wrote.

Facebook has been on a tear in the past several weeks, unveiling a series of upgrades and changes to its site in rapid succession, which some industry observers attribute to the competitive threat from the new Google+ social network.

After Google+ launched in limited trial in late June, Facebook launched video chat, improved its privacy controls and simplified the process for grouping friends into smaller groups, three areas in which Google+ claimed to offer a better experience.

Facebook also recently started letting members subscribe to each others' public posts without having to become formal friends, a move seen as a reaction to not only Google+ but also to Twitter's "follower" model of interaction.

Now, with the F8 conference announcements, it remains to be seen if Facebook is throwing too many changes at its users in a short time, which could lead to confusion, Sterling said.