Comments on: Facebook: Applications Aren’t Meant to Be Installed

By: Facebook’s Disappearing Application Platform

Facebook’s Disappearing Application Platform — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 08:21:47 +0000

[...] refer to those as the “wild west” days with the ensuing gold rush period that was eventually killed off. Ever since then it seems Facebook as increasing clamped down user’s exposure to third party [...]

By: Jonathan Coffman

Jonathan Coffman — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 03:12:16 +0000

[...] Facebook: Applications Aren’t Meant to Be Installed [...]

By: Facebook Applications Blog

Facebook Applications Blog — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 09:42:46 +0000

Hey , here is another facebook blog http://facebookster.com/blog/

By: Facebook To Give Developers A New Set of Metrics

Facebook To Give Developers A New Set of Metrics — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 07:46:31 +0000

[...] on profile boxes, confirmations of feed forms, and additions and removals of bookmarks (which have replaced application installations). Developers will be able to graph changes to these statistics over time [...]

By: Facebook To Give Developers A New Set of Metrics · ordaso.com

Facebook To Give Developers A New Set of Metrics · ordaso.com — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:58:02 +0000

By: Facebook Streamlining Application Authorization | Konigi

Facebook Streamlining Application Authorization | Konigi — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 11:30:22 +0000

[...] all, I like that this puts control in the hands of Facebook users. TechCrunch criticized Facebook for not taking stronger measures when dealing with app developers who use spammy methods, [...]

By: andrewkfromaz

andrewkfromaz — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:59:48 +0000

Facebook needs to get serious with Slide and RockYou – the spammy, useless apps they have plastered everywhere seriously need to go. Facebook needs to simply kill a few of these apps that are blatantly abusive of FB’s users.

By: Arsenal Credit Card

Arsenal Credit Card — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 00:07:44 +0000

Im starting to fall out with facebook.

By: Another Casualty Of the Facebook Redesign: Network Pages To Be Discontinued : New Web 2.0 Magazine

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:02:56 +0000

[...] planned site redesign that is meant to make it simpler to use. (A much bigger change is the way applications will be added in the [...]

By: Lina DeMartinez

Lina DeMartinez — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:10:28 +0000

After all is said and done, the truth is two giants will remain in this business… Slide and RockYou!- both notorious for their blatant violations of the TOS.

Facebook´s lack of diligence in punishing these, the most abusive apps, will come back to haunt them someday.

So people may see what is in store for them:

This isn’t Porn Part III – The Insolence of Funwall
http://forum.de...ic.php?id=14312

By: jj

jj — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 20:03:43 +0000

fb platform is dead with these changes…there is no incentive to develop new apps on fb….the simple reason ppl flocked to fb is to get users virally…if tht is taken away no one will invest in fb app development

By: Alex Iskold

Alex Iskold — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:26:08 +0000

Its good changes, but they should have thought it through from the beginning. Change is gonna further alienate developers, since you can’t really bet your business on something that is a moving target.

By: Josh Williams

Josh Williams — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:22:24 +0000

Wow. It sounds like this may force application developers to build stuff that people will actually use in order gain traction. That’s horrible.

By: Will Johnston

Will Johnston — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:42:57 +0000

I don’t like this change from a user perspective. I don’t want to have to go through another step to configure an application. If I don’t want it, I won’t install it in the first place.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:53:54 +0000

I believe they should leave it an open platform like Microsoft has done with Windows and allow 3rd parties to create anti-spam applications like AVG, Norton, Mcafee and Spybot Search & Destroy on Windows.

I believe their move to tweak the platform shows they are not really looking at their site as an actual platform but more like a service.

If they are going to treat it as a service, I disagree with the poster that they should dole out punishment to individuals. They are taking Google’s lead by changing the “algorithm” and refraining from punishing individuals which has worked very well for Google in the past (and scales … ehem Twitter).

Disclaimer: I’m coming from a SEO background so this seemed applicable to me.

By: Dave Litsky

Dave Litsky — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 12:20:38 +0000

@32 Chuckles

That is a sore point with me as I prefer not to give my applications access to my minifeed. But, that means I will be more careful as to which applications I add to my account.

By: TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Facebook：アプリケーションはインストールするためにあらず

TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ » Facebook：アプリケーションはインストールするためにあらず — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 11:39:13 +0000

[...] [原文へ] [...]

By: Chuckles

Chuckles — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:35:31 +0000

This isn’t really the fundamental change the article makes it out to be. It amounts to changing defaults. It’s been my habit to uncheck those boxes that give an application access to profile boxes, feeds etc, and only check them later if I want them.

Now they default to ‘off’. Which should have been the way things were done all along.

One change I don’t like is that they have access to feeds by applications turned on by default, and they’ve removed the checkbox allowing the user to turn it off.

Might want to think twice before visiting some dating app you’re not familiar with. It might immediately put a bunch of suggestive messages in the feeds of your friends and family, without giving you the option to turn off that integration point!

By: Jared Kells

Jared Kells — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 07:09:29 +0000

One of the reasons for Facebooks success is it’s clean design. One of the main reasons young adults use Facebook instead of myspace is the uncluttered clean design.

For most regular users the apps provide an interesting distraction but generally it just detracts from the overall experience. Super poke, vampires ninja’s its all garbage.

As a facebook user not developer this is a good change.

By: Mogilny

Mogilny — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:49:55 +0000

@Samuel Iglesias. How about your less fortunate friends who don’t have a iphone, what happens to them? Apple, unlike FB, won’t go into a project without a sound business plan. If they are going to provide those “services”, be prepare to leave an arm and a leg. I won’t be surprise if they tag team with at&t and gauge users with subscriptions and installations fees. Oh wait, i forgot. Apple is worth paying anything for.

By: Andrew Deal

Andrew Deal — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:26:36 +0000

I see it as a positive change.

Calling them installations was a misnomer to begin with, but I can see why they did it.

The apps people develop need to be a whole lot less inane… will that change? Let’s see.

By: Mehmet Subasi

Mehmet Subasi — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:04:56 +0000

Facebook needs to go forward. And without change FB can not survive in the future. The critical point is not the changes, but how they will manage these changes. Also see my posting “the time for weak applications in Facebook is over” from May 28th

By: Justin Smith

Justin Smith — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:53:03 +0000

Mark,

Actually I posted on this the day *before* Facebook’s post. Maybe you missed it?

http://www.insi...ebook-redesign/

The day after this post, Facebook’s Baratch expounded in the long post giving their perspective on the changes.

-Justin

By: Samuel Iglesias

Samuel Iglesias — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:10:13 +0000

@Mogilny,

They bought the domain sometime back in December; the service is definitely going to be introduced at WWDC, and I wouldn’t doubt for a second that Apple is stepping into the arena of mobile social functionality with the .mac revamp. I think we’re going to see photo broadcasting, geo-tagging, and maybe even twitter-like microblogging integrated on the OS level like never before with the next SDK, perhaps leveraging exclusive privileges through me.com.

And who said anything about Apple saving the world? Typical Apple-hater…

By: dave mcclure

dave mcclure — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:07:14 +0000

“installing” & “uninstalling” aren’t mainstream user terminology.

regardless whether FB pulls back on the reins here, the user experience should be more seamless & less cluttered.

making profile boxes “opt-in” is probably the right way to go, altho i’d prefer it be more passive based on usage.

(in other words, you can “try out” an app anytime… using it regularly should then automatically enable it in one or more areas of your profile. we’ll see if this is how it pans out in new profile UX)