The New York Times has completed a major integration with Facebook directly into the publication’s extremely popular homepage. The functionality appears to be similar to Facebook’s recommended articles social plugin, with users being required to opt-in to the service. The most notable aspect of this new service however is that the typically design-conscious company, has a plugin which doesn’t align with the rest of the site. I’d expect them to resolve this issue eventually though.

According to NYTimes.com, the only information that will be displayed within your Facebook profiles is recommendations that you chose to share on Facebook. In contrast to other services, like those who’ve integrated with Facebook’s Instant Personalization product, all information being used by NYTimes.com is explicitly stated. The company hope to avoid receiving any criticism for privacy related issues.

This new service also does not integrate with the New York Times’ existing TimesPeople social news network. Instead, the company has chosen to use a number of separated social tools for providing more interaction among its users. If you want to see how the new integration works, simply visit the New York Times homepage. You can also learn more about the company’s various social features via the company’s social media tools FAQ.