The most recent victim of the Facebook vs. annoying application war is SpeedDate. SpeedDate, an application from the company of the same name, has disappeared from the application list, and the link to the application leads back to the Facebook homepage. SpeedDate is a web-based speed dating service that also offers a Meebo application, and until recently, a Facebook application.
Recent victims include Slide’s Top Friends (was gone for 7 days, restored this weekend), Socialhi’s SocialMe (suspended since July 1, not available yet), RockYou’s Super Wall (moratorium on viral channels), and now SpeedDate.
A recent Google search came up with a Yahoo! Answers post that asked the question “has anyone had the speed date application appear on their profile without adding the application?” There was another response that had someone saying that the same thing had happened to them. This might have something to do with the suspension, but we won’t know until tomorrow (seems to be a trend, the Top Friends application disappeared in the middle of the night as well).
Other speed dating applications (from Desidate.tv and Randomate) on Facebook have remained untouched.
This is a trend for sure. I think it is a great sign that apps that are breaking the terms of service are being shut off. The lunatics ran the asylum inthe ecosystem to som extent. The facebook coppers have arrived and are dropping the hammer. Good.
Until there was this trend developers would rather ask forgiveness than permission because facebook would not shut them off. Now the tables are turning and this signals the trend towards more useful applications and stricter enforcement of the rules.
Cheers!
Rodney Rumford
Editor: Facereviews.com
however, facebook became incredibly popular under this regime, the fellow lunatics must have liked the other lunatics being in charge. now the puritans have a arrived the lunatics may well move on. doesn’t send a very good sign to developers either, i mean you are there at the whim of an inaccessible management team with no redress for grievances. that will give real confidence to developers.
I think there are (at least) two reasons why SpeedDate is gone:
It seems the company had at least one other application, which got folded into their main SpeedDate application - I’m not sure, but I would guess there’s a good chance that the people who didn’t install SpeedDate did install the other application, which turned into SpeedDate later. That in itself is probably worthy of a ban.
I’ve had a few messages from them telling me that someone has sent me a personal message and I should login to read it. When I click the link, I’m sent to a skippable invite-your-friends form, which is followed by a non-skippable login/signup form for speeddate, requiring me to have an account on their service. I’m pretty sure that’s against current FB T&C. I’ve no idea if I actually do have a message, but I doubt it.
If the T&C were applied and enforced on a ’spirit of the law’ basis, and developers didn’t try to get around it - or were actually punished, something like a three strikes rule - FB would be a much more pleasant place…
I guess this is not a cherry-pick thing but a well-set facebook strategy as described in the blog.
Starting to wonder why anyone would want to develop for the Facebook Developer platform.
Calley - did you write this while Mike was shooting Qik video earlier with Loic, Steve, & Nik? Interesting video.
@don wilson,
as a facebook app developer,
i cherish this news,
once these rule-breakers are gone/fixed,
there ll be more room for everyone else
There’s always room for dumb, time-wasting apps.
SpeedDate has always been a big big spammer! They’re all about personas! Good move Facebook!
some of the apps are “ok”…
but if i get one more zombie-food-fight-or-be-my-best-friend invite i’m gonna snap.
SpeedDate bought an old quiz application called “What Color Are You?” which had several million (dormant) users in its database from the days when simple quiz apps could get big simply by forcing users to invite 20 friends in order to see their quiz results.
They then simply swapped out the quiz app code and put their own app in its place, thus magically appearing on the profiles of all the unwitting users who had originally installed the “What Colour Are You?” quiz.
They then also proceeded to spam the entire userbase with emails/notifications relating to this SpeedDate app which had magically appeared.
This is very likely why the app was taken down!
SpeedDate will obviously not win many friends with such behavior. Their exit from Facebook hardly surprises anybody.
‘owned’ and ‘friendsforsale’ seem to be gone too.
nevermind, they’re back
Wow. I’m not going to lie, this is pretty good news for me. I run the competing site/app Randomate.com and I definitely saw an unexpected bump starting yesterday evening. It wasn’t until just now that I realized the likely reason for the spike.
I can’t believe that they would be so reckless with their business plans. This is a funded company, not just some shady operation.
Oh well, I’m not here to gloat. It’s good to see Facebook is keeping an eye on bad practices, but it’s got to be tough for the team members behind SpeedDate as they wake up to this news today.
@14 I love that name Randomate.com. I wish you well with your business.
another waste of time for facebook users
Nath
http://www.themostpowerfulcompany.com
@14 - FYI your site does not display properly in Firefox 3 on a Mac
On topic though, I’m surprised that Facebook is targeting the big name apps as much as they are, and letting many of the shady little apps go under the radar. A significant amount of smaller apps are just a semi-usable facade on various affiliate marketing schemes, and it’s making some people a killing.
good to see these guys getting shut down as they were dubious on multiple fronts.
Wonder what Facebook’s definition of good behaviors is. They can change it any time they want, and the rule seems to get stricter.
prob because there was a guy on there talking to me. he showed me a little too much skin. haha ew
MAN this sucks i was just talking to a girl i was really interested in through this application and was supposed to meet up with her but now i can’t because i can’t find her DAMN IT
I met a girl in a bar a couple weeks ago. After a bit, she told me what she did for a living. I didn’t get the site name, but she told me she worked for a site like this (it might have even been this one, for all I know) - pretending to be single and interested in every single guy who contacted her. She was paid based on the number of guys she was able to keep on the hook to keep them paying the monthly fees. Apparently some of her friends would go so far as to strip on the cam chat sessions. “Dating.” Uh huh.
Ryan, you obviously weren’t talking to anyone from SpeedDate. They don’t charge any monthly fees - it is free. Anyways, the SpeedDate app is back so happy online speed dating…
I love SpeedDate. it’s one of my favorite socially-inclined websites. But, I love Facebook more than this. Sorry…
I don’t find it funny that my husband is looked up by other women wanting him to be their lover….therefore I don’t like the idea og speeddate o Facebook….as I thought Facebook was for “conversation” between people, not for finding a new husband or wife….
At least the one using speeddate could make sure that the one they send mails to for more than friendship is single and not already married…that bad behavior trying to “steal” others man or wife…
Helle