Facebook Launches Facebook Platform; They are the Anti-MySpace

Anything anti-MySpace goes up a notch in my books!

On a side note, I wonder if MySpace has any plans on releasing an API themselves? Now, THAT would be interesting to see. Thoughts?

http://www.kinggary.com/

This is definitely going to be huge. To all you widget developers, on your mark, get set, deploy!

Where is the event being held and is it public?

how will these new apps be represented visually? as widgets on a user’s profile page, i’m guessing?

Can’t wait to hear more

TechCrunch widget =)

Facebook is the walled garden of all walled gardens. Mark must have been racking his brain to find new ways to add traction to the system without running afoul of his user base (as he has done several times in the past).

Becoming the ultimate portal for the generation of social networking applications is a really smart move on his part now that he has opened the network to all.

The one thing that facebook has always been missing is the ability to deeply customize the way you view their content. Things like the photo album have always drawn a lot of traffic because users have the ability to interact with them in ways that a lot of the rest of the site lacks.

It’s looking more and more likely that they are not planning to go the acquisition route. Between this and the classified announcement it looks like Facebook is getting ready for the long haul.

This is huge for IAC - long rumored to have turnkey facebook widgets, skins, and apps in the barrel.

Kudos to the facebook team.

Mmmmmm me love widgets I want to eat them

If anyone caught Wales on PBS the other night, he glazed over Zuckerberg and connected him with the O.S. initiative. That, pared with the recent WSJ article got me thinking of what facebook was coming out with, but I didn’t think it was going to be this soon.

i’m not convinced this is such a huge deal. myspace has allowed 3rd party widgets for a long time, albeit without an applications area. all that will happen is a migration of the predominant myspace widgets to facebook.

The question is what will be their stance on advertising.

I think it’s desperation.

What I’m really wondering is how deep the intensity of rivalry is between MySpace and Facebook. That being said, I wonder if Facebook will allow MySpace’s Photobucket widget.

Is it confirmed that this is basically widgets? In other words, Facebook keeps users on the site, but other companies can reach their users through the site? Does that mean Coca-Cola, Budweiser, etc. can make widgets that would run on Facebook and not have to pay them any advertisement fees?

I tend to agree with matthew (#12). It’s an open platform and leagues ahead of MySpace’s walled garden, but I don’t really see how this could be any different (with the exception that MySpace will shut you down if you’re big enough). Where’s the value beyond the Facebook domain? I visualize a more open network where data is attached to users, and users are able to export their relationships…

Something closer to XFN…

Or some advanced version of FOAF.

Either way, what it appears to be is that Facebook is ever so slowly opening its doors. They may not have originally had this planned but the air of exclusivity that they nurtured for so long may have made the rivalry between Facebook and Myspace all but irrelevant.

Since Myspace started off completely open, it has tended to attract all the villainy that a soapbox usually does. Facebook has managed to control the amount of spam by controlling the type of users it has let in.

Opening up the floor for third party applications is just going to drive traffic up as people begin to expierment with widgets, but unlike Myspace it is unlikely to create the sort of CSS nightmares that your typical Myspace profile ends up becoming.

I believe I saw it posted somewhere that Mark was going to ride the train to the top.. might’ve even been here on TC.. I think this is a really smart and cool move of FB.

Some of you really dont get it.

Its the network, stupid. THAT is the platform. FB is a million miles ahead of any other service in this respect. I expect big things.

How does this affect Yahoo? Seems like Facebook is making more and more inroads on Yahoo’s turf.

Here’s what no one is seeing - their closed door approach allowed them to get a near perfect social platform built.

Anyone use myspace regularly? How often do aspects crash or fail?

How often do folks have these problems with Facebook?

It’s not even a fair comparison - Facebook was patient and diligent and now is taking on traffic building “sticky” aspects.

This is the way is SHOULD be done - not the other way around.

Smart focused growth.

Myspace should be worried - they’re too corporate now, and won’t be nimble enough to compete with the products facebook will be releasing now.

Facebook is making big inroads into google and yahoo’s turf. I wouldn’t be
be surprised if iphone makes a deal with Facebook.

Venrock and Sequoia missed Facebook. That is why all their investors like Swenson left them. KP is the best fund becacuse they were able to get in at a very low valuations.

KP is the best fund because they have an excellent training program.

This is going to make Facebook much more attractive to an older audience, in particular, the Myspace crowd. I have a Myspace profile, but now I want to see what all this hoopla will be about.

My much younger cousins in high school and college are going to think I’m a real loser when I try to add them as my friends.

Sequoia missed out on Facebook because they screwed over Sean Parker on Plaxo.

This is going to get really interesting. I wonder who is going to jump all over this first.
http://www.profilefly.com
~MJK

I just hope people’s facebook pages don’t end up looking like those of myspace which never load or are filled with so much third party widgets that they crash your browser.

Third party developers would be stupid to develop for this platform. As we have seen, time and time again with mashups all over the web, if the 3rd party idea is really worthwhile, Facebook will steal the features and integrate it into the main site.

To 23.

That’s exactly what I was saying. Right now their traffic is far behind Myspace’s 100+ Million users, but their problems are exponentially fewer as well. With the addition of new features, and the corrective measures they have already built into the system I wouldn’t doubt if they will be able to create a nearly perfect (by web 2.0 standards) user experience.

Mark really should ride this to the top, I see Facebook as -the- general purpose social network, and once he finds a way to market some of the data that is being generated without cutting off his legs — it might become one of the worlds leading social media companies.

Classified + Widgets + Demographically/Regional separated user base = Advertiser gold.

Mature poster #21 (Project):

I think everyone gets that. What people don’t get is how opening up the platform to widget developers is going to directly compete head-on with Google… or how it’s going to “eat Yahoo”.

If you can explain that successfully, you should seriously consider a tech-startup blog… knowing the facts and outcome of a feature before it’s even announced is a talent right up there with Miss Cleo… and we all know what happened to her

This will just open the flood gates for spammers. They will create spyware programs that will infiltrate everyone and their friends account. Much like MySpace has gotten stuck with the bulletins.

Mark my words, this will be the death of Facebook.

Robert - this really isnt about just widgets.

Read this:
http://mp.blogs.com/mp/2007/05/s_21.html

30 - thanks.

I’m in a similar position having finished school pre facebook and having many more peers on myspace - that said what’s keeping them from scraping and importing friends from myspace?

facebook has more security features and a tighter architecture so i don’t see 32’s comment being entirely relevant.

will they need to beef up security and screen 3rd party folks yes.

will it be their death?

doubtful.

the next thing they should do is take the facebook social network structure and market that to other sites and segments they can’t reach, monetizing overall traffic and reach.

that’s how they kill myspace.

if they’re equally resolved as they have been it will take 2 years to be a full peer in terms of reach.*

*guess

Project,

Interesting read (adds to RSS)… is that your blog?

Allyourbasearebelong to Zuckerberg.

“says they’re targeting Google next…” is that a beat em or join em quote or what?

maybe certain aspects of iGoogle or syndication … odd statement.

I can see how this will appeal to many individuals moving from MySpace to Facebook, but do people think that bands/companies and other organisations will now set up Facebook profiles?

Well, they can’t necessarily beat Google on sheer data aggregation. What they can do is provide similar features but take a more “person-centered” approach. The idea of “people search” is all the rage these days. Take a look at Wink and Spock.

What you have with Facebook is one of the biggest “real name” directories of people, their interests and other searchable tidbits on the planet.

If they want to go toe to toe with Google it will be on using this index of information in ways that Google’s UI currently prevents it from doing. Imagine the mashup possibilities.

One way Facebook can already leapfrog Google: They can leverage personal relationships to provide search results from people you already know.

in true steve jobs style…

“Tonight”

very well done

Facebook just became the most important internet portal ever

I bet that Facebook will not mention that Hi5.com just passed them in traffic.

FYI, I have the full list of companies listed on Cn along with a SplashCast in case you don’t want to read
http://www.centernetworks.com/.....k-platform

Great note taking Michael!

/me waits for the techcrunch zuckerberg’s address

“Facebook just became the most important internet portal ever”

The funny thing is, you arent lying.

I’m actually getting kind of sick of Facebook.

I do believe that the constant changes Facebook are making are an attempt to keep their captive audience interested. Just when you think everyone is getting bored of Facebook (like Matt No. 48), they release something new.

This new platform will mean that the “something new” is constantly being introduced, thus letting others take care of the dirty work of creating new functions to excite the users.

News feed, status updates, City Networks, Network Homepages, Marketplace - all happens very gradually, but think back to less than 12 months ago - Facebook had none of these features.

So,

Myspace= red-light district
Facebook= suburban home
Linkedin= office

So when will all of this available? It’s nice to talk, but when will these 3rd party apps be used by 50% of users that are using Facebook everyday?

lol, sounds right

Does anyone get the feeling that our Live Feeds could get more than a little cluttered in the near future?

We’re all going to end up trimming the size of our Facebook networks just to keep the service usable in the midst of this influx of apps and the data trails that they’ll inevitably leave.

Facebook had a great user experience because A: it never crashed and B: the website was so simplistic. Their design helped you find what you need, and you never needed to look at a banner ad (sorry advertisers!).

This new API move could be good, but if pages start looking like a collage of random logos and shamless marketing ploys (see Red Bull), then users are going to get irritated. MySpace has always been cheesy in your face w/ advertising, Facebook was the “too cool for school”. If they’re trying to get more aggressive, then they need to understand their users may get irritated. I also feel FBK has a more savvy user than MySpace, so you will definitely see some backlash if it gets out of hand w/ the promotion.

Bottom line I think facebook is clueless now on how to make serious money. the banner ad campaigns have been disastrous, and their virtual gift has not been a home run.

If they can’t right the ship, I’m sure the VC’s will be screaming for acquisition.

So how long until petition groups get set up? I’m predicting in the next 4 hours. “Back to the old facebook” “We came here cos we hate myspaces” etc etc

Anyone know when this is going to launch?

Kudos to Facebook. This really looks like a brilliant move, and a sign they won’t be selling to a bigger player, rather trying to rise up and eat the bigger fish. If Facebook can capture the imagination of enough developers, becoming the key platform for social media, they may be glad to have turned down a billion dollars. At the least Mark Z and his crew deserve huge props for going for the gusto and offering to take the development community along for the ride.

@pat - TONIGHT!

I can’t wait!! =D

Hopefully it’ll have Last.fm, maybe digg, or delicious intergration!!!

We’ve got a full FAQ up based on the info we know from being one of the first companies in - http://splashcastmedia.com/spl.....n-facebook

Regarding your news pages being cluttered, id guess that the preference controls already in place will become even more granular to take into account application specific items.

ie the mixer that allows you to ‘turn off’ or ‘quieten’ certain types of traffic (photos, wall posts, groups etc) shoudl have applications on there.

Some of the applications, like Box.net, Causes etc will be genuinely useful. The Red Bull stuff can die for all I care.

nice blog, keep on the good work

this is a very dumb question, but where does one apply for a developer account for The Platform?

it’s not at developer.facebook.com yet - that’s still a page about their current (and rather boring) API.

Scrapblog.com has a facebook integration which is quite slick. http://fb.scrapblog.com

MySpace already allows most everyone’s widgets to appear on their pages. I applaud Facebook for doing this as well.

#50 bdb wrote: Myspace= red-light district / Facebook= suburban home / Linkedin= office. Does this make Facebook a red-light suburban home? Now that Facebook allows open account creation (no school affil) and widgets, what can we expect?

Prosper built an app called “Fantasy Banker” for the event. As soon as the platform launches officially tonight, it will be available here:

http://apps.facebook.com/fantasybanker

We found it pretty easy to build on the platform, and regardless of how our app does, in my opinion this is a big move on Facebook’s part.

when will this go live? come on michael, where’s your reporter skills?

I though TC would provide a video of the Keynote….come on something!!

Michael, your headline and story get this right on the money. Brilliant move by Facebook and brave too. We at PicksPal are also one of the early folks in on this (btw, it launches “tonight” is all anyone is allowed to say). Their reveal today was how the revenue would be split. Their “social graph” is their secret sauce and allowing developers to tap in to that is a multiplier for both Fbook and the app developers. And a big win for their audience.

I work for one of the partner sites that was invited to the F8 beta and to make applications. For starters, that list of partners going around is not complete. Second the facebook integration is far superior to myspace. The apps are installed onto facebook and the data is cached so there isnt as heavily reliance on a 3rd party. The one major feature that myspace cant compete with is the fact that facebook lets your integrate with their data. This is going to bring in worthwhile applications. They support there own markup language called FBML, which has some basic javascript and ajax functionality. Your apps can communicate with other users who install it as well as take advantage of the information facebook already provides. Every app comes with security and authorization of use. Privacy was really taken into account when building the F8 environment. They DO NOT let you edit the css of the page. The apps are within their own containers, so we wont have the whole ugly myspace issue. Since everything is cached we also wont have the issue of slow pages (unless you install 5,000 apps on your page). I have had several weeks to play with the F8 environment. I must say its excellent and facebook did a great job. This is going to change the way the site is used and bring a whole new ecosystem to the site.

This is definitely very interesting and this is very similar to what Salesforce.com did with their on-demand platform by allowing business application vendors to write components for use within Salesforce.com. The monetization for the vendors is very clear with Salesforce.com platform, though, which I am not seeing here in Facebook based on what we know.

Also, is social OS really going to be as important as the on-demand OS? Is it about the OS or is it about the users, in this case? Its seems to me like 3rd party developers would want to develop to get their apps in front of the facebook user base. It will be important to see how developers can benefit from this.

As a future widget provider at first this excites the heck out of me…

However, as a 3 year user of facebook….why would I want to add a widget? It’s not myspace, where pimped out profiles and ‘what superhero are you most like’ and music’s blaring when you come to a page occur. Facebook’s much more laid back…and…unlike MySpace…we don’t interact with the site much. Adding photos and events isn’t interacting with the site, it’s interacting with our friends.

Editing HTML code and everything is interacting with the site…Facebook’s audience is much more passive (though it may change as all the ex-MySpacer’s come to college and all us original facebookers graduate)

It’ll be interesting to see how companies make the widgets work…they better OFFER us something for putting their widget on the site (significant opportunity for beer manufacturers)…otherwise we’re just too lazy.

This is the beginning of the end of ultra-high growth for Facebook. The reason people like Facebook is that it’s clean and easy to use. Facebook does have tremendous scale, but now, it’s going to lose the asthetic appeal. Facebook will still be huge, but a lot of people are going to decrease their usage of it.

Anyone have any ideas how this will impact ning.com long term?

Well I was pleasantly surprised to get the call up last week. It’s been a wild launch, and since there wasn’t much press coverage on - Lending Club - check them out on the blog, and feel free to go install their application. I just did, as it is live. Very slick and easy to install into your facebook account.

Rex

This is a bold, smart strategic move by Facebook. Let all the speculators speculate, let the rest of us start building.

Inworld widgets. Sure looks like a lock-in strategy to me. It’ll probably work, but it sure looks like roach motel. I hope I’m wrong cause this could have been so much more.

Impact ning.com? Was anyone ever looking at ning.com?

Kevin: it’s pretty far from lock-in. Today we announced both popfly and visual studio support for Facebook, which increases the potential size of the platform’s audience by an order of magnitude. With popfly, for example, a non-coder can mashup Facebook friends with XBox 360 gamer tag (or any block that anyone else writes — it’s not exclusive to MSFT or Facebook). As anon says, there are tons of people already building on it — I got to see a bunch at Web 2.0 expo a couple months ago.

I say some more about this here: http://www.visitmix.com/Blogs/.....al-studio/

More power to them for whatever they do. People choose to use the site, if they don’t like it, they’re always free to leave.

http://www.nenpimania.com

wow its very interesting to see face book taking reverse approach of myspace - which is again a leading proven successful site. Facebook is rocking.

All this seems like is a huge business opportunity to monetize Facebook. Since the platform isn’t open, it’s much like M$ Windows, Facebook can decide if and what widgets are allowed, and where they go, how to monetize each widget. Other Web 2.0 companies who play into this mess will only lose their user base to a more consolidated platform and they will have to pay the owners of the platform (facebook) for access to their audience. Such a closed system can’t possibly be good for the users when it becomes more commercialized. That being said, it’s a great achievement and I think it’s a brilliant strategy if other companies play into it — but with such a large user base they would be stupid not to, eh?

I never liked Myspace anyway. At least facebook pages aren’t godaweful ugly like some Myspace pages.

V/r,
John
http://www.johninjapan.com

I can’t help but notice a lot of my freinds opening facebook pages and leaving myspace.. Its a trend I imagine will follow.

we have yet to see - but it sounds like a good idea. Ofcourse we hear that the owner of myspace is trying to buy content [names withheld to protect the stock market ] in the belieth to build portals like myspace - So I guess it’s all up to who can complete and better emplement.

It’s time for Face Book to Pay Up.

The End of the Plantation system.

I would like to help a bit in bringing about a new era on the Internet. We can call it web 3.0, or 2.5. I will leave the definition to others that are better at this kind of thing.

This will be the era of a true revolution in the power of site members. An era where members have the power and the ability to be rewarded monetarily for the value that they add and the revenues that are generated from their work and participation.

The recent announcements by Face Book that they are going to be the next OS, or the next platform, or the next goggle, reeks of egotism and self indulgence as well as a master slave mentality. In the bravado of the announcements that spewed forth from the reality distorted world of Face Book what was left out was the untold fact that Face Book would have little or no value if it were not for it’s 25 million members.

The hard fact and truth of the matter is that Face Book makes hundreds of millions of dollars off of the backs of its 25 million members and has no plans to share the true wealth (money) of the revenue they generate with them.

Does Mr.Zuckerberg or anyone at Face Book believe that they add more value to Face Book than the 25 million members ?

If the answer is no then the revenue generated and the value added to Face Book should be shared monetarily with the members that have have generated the revenue and added the value. Without the members Face Book would have little or no Value.

We now live in a technical age where a close to approximate monetary value can be assigned to the value and revenue that Facebook members add to the company. This fact can no longer be hidden, it can be found and it should be known by all of the members that generate the wealth and revenue.

Why cant we see a graph on Face Book that discloses to the members the amount of revenue that is generated from them in terms of revenue generating partnership deals and advertising ?

Why cant Facebook give an equitable portion of its ad revenue directly to its 25 million members ?

Of the revenue that Face Book generates, as a percentage how much is given back to its 25 million members in a monetary form ?

The advertising revenue that is generated by Face Book come from the actions of the 25 Million members, not the Face Book staff, so the members should receive the lions share of the revenue

How much stock in the company do the 25 million members that generate hundreds of millions of dollars for Face Book own. Because the 25 million members generate most if not all of the revenue and value for Face Book, shouldn’t they all be stock owners ?

As a group the 25 million members add value to the company and generate revenue, as a group they should own stock in proportion to the vaue that the add and the revenue that they generate.

How much is Microsoft paying Face book for the rights to serve ads to Face Book members? Since the value of the ad deal is probably based on the amount of members that face books has, it would make sense that the members should be given a share of the money that Microsoft has paid to Face Book for the rights to serve the ads. Mr Zuckerberg and the rest of the Face Book team should give the 25 million members the money they deserve for the value that they add to Face Book.

If yahoo would have acquired face book for one billion dollar, would any of this money be given to the 25 million members that have given Face Book the one billion dollar valuation ?

For a one billion dollar acquisition that is by and large based on membership size as well as advertising revenue generated by the members; it seems that giving each of the 25 million members 1 million dollars would be an almost equatable reward for their participation.

There is little difference between how Face Book treats its members and the share cropping schemes that were used to generate wealth for rich land owners on the backs of poor people and slaves. At least in the old share cropping schemes the works received a small portion of revenue, in the current situation members receive none of the revenue from the content that they create. Face Book and other sites that do not share the revenue and wealth that members create for them do not understand that the times have changed and the plantation game will no longer work. Now members have the ability to leave the plantation and to either create their own communities or to become members of communities that will pay them an equitable portion of the revenue and value that they create. This is one of the key revolutions of technology. There are no barriers to owning the means of production. Members are the means of productions, and are the value add. The pyramid that had members who are content creators and add value on the bottom has now been turned upside down. Unlike slaves that could not break free of the wealthy plantation owners bonds, members now have the ability to demand their equitable share and if they are not given it they can leave without retribution.

It is time that members demand to be equitably rewarded (in the form of money) for the revenue and value that they generate.The 25 million Face Book members as a group should demanded to become stock holders and to be given a part of the revenue that they generate from advertisement clicks as well as a portion of the revenue that is generated from partnership deals based on their action and their numbers . If the members do make this demand and they are not rewarded in an equitable manner they should leave Face Book and any other site that will not reward equitably for the value and revenue that they generate.

From Wikipedia

“Sharecropping typically involves a relatively richer owner of the land and a poorer agricultural worker or farmer; although the reverse relationship, in which a poor landlord leases out to a rich tenant[2] also exists. The typical form of sharecropping is generally seen as exploitative, particularly with large holdings of land where there is evident disparity of wealth between the parties.[attribution needed] It can have more than a passing similarity to serfdom or indenture, and it has therefore been seen as an issue of land reform in contexts such as the Mexican Revolution. (Sharecropping is distinguished from serfdom in that sharecroppers have freedom in their private lives and, at least in theory, freedom to leave the land; and distinguished from indenture in sharecroppers[][]entitlement to a share of production and, at least in theory, freedom to delegate the work to others.) Sharecropping is often described as a never ending cycle of debt.

Sharecropping agreements can however be made fairly,[attribution needed] as a form of tenant farming or sharefarming that has a variable rental payment, paid in arrears. There are three different types of contracts.

1. Workers can rent plots of land from the owner for a certain sum and keep the whole crop.
2. Workers work on the land and earn a fixed wage from the land owner but keep none of the crop.
3. Workers can neither work for nor get paid from the land owner, so the worker and land owner each keep a share of the crop.

There are three different types of tenant farming. According to A. Alkalimat, renters who were to hire land for a fixed rental to be paid either in cash or its equivalent in crop values; share tenants, who furnish their own farm equipment and work animals and obtain use of land by agreeing to pay a fixed percent of the cash crop which they raise; share-croppers who have to have furnished to them not only the land but also farm tools and animals, fertilizer, and often even their own food, which they had to pay back with a larger percentage than shared tenants. Tenant farming was a way in which to keep African Americans and other poor groups under control but make them feel like they had some importance. Though many blacks participated in tenant farming they still were looked at and labeled as the lower class.

Because of the high rate of illiteracy among blacks at the time, they were often taken advantage of. Poor, illiterate and intimidated by post Civil War violence, many former slaves agreed to sharecropping contracts that were designed to keep them poor [PBS]. Eventually this exploitation led to violence. Courts would usually rule in favor of landowners when these incidents were brought to court.

The Anti-MySpace is already out there…and it’s name is Virb.

As a college student that started “Facebooking” right when Facebook first came out, to me this is such a disappointment. Most of my peers I know share the same view. Facebook was awesome for its exclusivity–that’s the part that appealed to us most at first. Now that it’s getting so busy and corporate I see a lot of the first-generation users abandoning the site. It’s just not the same anymore.

Sure, many new users both old and new will continue to join, resulting in (most likely) enormous growth, but for those of us who were around from the start this is a major step down. But business is business. I just miss the old facebook.

From what I understand, user will have to “install” 3rd party app within their facebook account. So for people that don’t want to change their actual facebook account, they just have to ignore new app.

I mean this is great, if you find an application that is appealing to you, you get it, and if you don’t, well you don’t install anything new!

I think it is genius! When I read they refused a billion dollars offer, I first thought this kid is insane! He was saying “we want to build something for the long run” .. and I’m starting to believe he will

Long live to Facebook!

I’m really looking forward to seeing what all comes out for Facebook!

Will Facebook bloc