I don’t think that will reduce it in anyway. Some of the most guilty parties on the FB spaminess side of things are those with significant financial backing. If anything it may actually provide extra incentive to spam more, so they can overcome the cost of the ‘hurdle’ quicker.

As for the spaminess of quizes, this is down to poor management by facebook. In the developer community we were complaining about the practice for months before facebook came up with a policy… which IMHO very weak, they then have been very quiet on policing it (when they should be naming and shaming and making examples of bad practices and demonstrating they are serious about it).

If networks/groups published their own apps, then these could be offered as a default, or at least as canned suggested apps, to anyone joining those apps/groups.

I’ve added 5 of my competitors to my upcoming application, only 2 of them actually worked properly.

Good…good…

Regarding, where FB is taking it. I think some things are on the cards
1. Better Analytics for App Developers : Tell them who is using it, how it is being used, which part of the world, maybe even their demographics
2. Subscription model : Facebook shares the revenue with app developers

So like Microsoft, Oracle having Certified Gold / Silver Partners; Facebook can do the same stuff depending on the kind of applications, benefit, userbase, adherence to details etc.

Overall I think it has the potential to be a universe of its own.

Akshay

Mike, not even Facebook thinks this. It has been awesome for marketing and PR, but the real aim of the platform - to increase the utility of Facebook by allowing others to build useful applications - has been largely undercut by the viral trivialities that now dominate the site and annoy users. How many people do you know that find Facebook all that more useful than 9 months ago? If you ask common users, who are on the site almost exclusively for the purpose of personal communication, the utility of the site has gone sideways at best. There is certainly potential there, but let’s call a spade a spade.

“spammy app”? Ha!

fb, plaxo, tagged, and any other service that optimizes for the gmail import tool are the ORIGINAL spammy apps.

optimizing for the invite screen on facebook is spam lite compared to importing and sending emails to ALL of your contacts.

you think flixter’s evaluation was based on much more than their (declining) user numbers?

take a look at their registration flow, and tell me you don’t think 2 out of 5 people will fall for importing all of their email contacts and spamming their friends.

“Going viral” is spamming, plain and simple. The value you derive from these “viral” services is between you, your god, and the entrepreneur.

It’s the culture, and I say fuck it, just go with it.

I won’t add an Application to my profile unless I see it on somebody else’s profile and it stands out as something that would be cool on mine. I don’t go onto Facebook and search for applications.

In any case, they definitely need it (and, can want it), given so many apps to choose from… like preferred partners concept etc.