Earlier this week Facebook made the landmark (and long-awaited) announcement that it was going to enable the “Open Stream“, granting developers far more access and flexibility to Facebook data than they had before. To commemorate the event, Facebook held a special Technology Tasting at its Palo Alto office, where it gave everyone an idea of exactly what developers could do with the new data.
We saw some impressive demos, including an example from Plaxo of how social sites could symbiotically exchange data with Facebook, followed by a walkthrough of the upcoming version of the new Seesmic Desktop. But out of all of them, by far the most visually impressive was a pair of applications put together by Microsoft. Yes, that Microsoft. In less than 72 hours, two small teams managed to put together a pair of applications built on the new Facebook APIs that really show off just how robust a Facebook application can be. The first app was built in Microsoft’s Silverlight platform, while the other is based on .NET.
I managed to get some footage of the demos during the event, but honestly it didn’t really do the apps justice (that’s what I get for trying to record with a video camera in each hand). So I got in touch with the team at Microsoft, which put together the high quality walkthrough video above. The video is narrated by Brian Goldfarb, Director of Microsoft’s Development Platform Group. Are the apps innovative? Not especially. But damn if they don’t look cool.
For those of you itching to try these out for yourselves, I’ve got bad news: you can’t. At least, not yet. But Microsoft will be releasing an SDK and the source code for both of the apps in the near future.
top video doesn’t work
Sorry about that, should work now.
Can’t view the video. Its private.
sorry.. now it works
we captured the comments from Zuck, Dave Morin and our Seesmic Desktop demo if anybody is interested:
http://www.yout...h?v=BXdzbLa31j0
thank you for the mention Jason!
No mentions that your pal Arrington invested in your shop? Sigh.
Let me help you with this one.
Disclosure: Michael Arrington, owner of TechCrunch, is an investor in Seesmic.
This is all very neat. How does it help Facebook make money?
I don’t want to hear about how FB opening its data creates “value.” How might it generate revenue?
All it helps is create apps that look pretty. I don’t have a problem with pretty, just that the novelty wears off quickly.
Now please check out my twitter app 14b.us
+1
ok i tried, but nothing.
It doesn’t matter whether they make money or not, they further solidify themselves as the powerhouse company that holds all your data. Essentially they are the google of social activity. Look @ twitter and the economy built around a service like that.
Facebook whole app platform has worn itself out and with twitter leading API openness time was nigh for facebook to follow suit.
Once an economy opens around facebook, they will have a plethora of options as far as revenue models for advertisers, etc. like twitter will do.
Who cares if they hold some of my data? What does it matter unless they have a revenue model?
Facebook is an address book, an email/IM service, a photo/vid-sharing service, and a link-sharing service. Will anybody pay for any of this? Or will they just use it for display advertising?
Even if it is “the Google of social activity,” Google only has one real revenue product, and I don’t see what Facebook’s version of “paid search” is.
YAWN.
Does it mean, we need to go to Facebook less often to see photos? Also they are more interesting on desktop using Microsoft tools?
It justifies Microsoft’s investment in Facebook?
I saw the association by name keyword but was anything shown about how to visually see connections between people and interests?
-Robb
Really neat stuff. Glad to see Microsoft entering the fray on this. Surprised, but glad.
Not surprising at all. What is surprising is the articles implication that even Microsoft can create something of interest. Truth is, Microsoft is a leader in technology innovation. TC needs to rise above their fanboy status and open their eyes beyond that which the cool kids declare worthy, really pathetic. Shows lack of true technological vision.
How does this highlight the new APIs? This doesn’t have anything to do with the stream APIs at all.
You can browse through the feed in the first app, and in the second one you can see news items when you mouse-over profile photos at the top of the screen.
I agree, this doesn’t have much to do with the stream API appart from a small part where you could see links to comments and likes (which they didn’t even demo) the rest could have easily been done with existing API and could have been written anytime in the last 2+ years.
“To commerate the event, Facebook held…”
I’m sure you meant “commemorate”.
Great post nonetheless..
Why not let individual users host their own facebook server that contains their profile?
Even with the work involved in securing this kind of distributed server network, the savings from not running all those servers would pay for itself.
Plus us users get direct control over our data!
A Plaxo mention? Why do I need that anymore? Everyone I know is on Facebook…. What-ev-ah
Shout out to our friends at Microsoft (Concept Development Team and WPF team) for creating two impressive demos on such short notice.
tell me about it — they did an amazing job! glad we could do it.
aah, a new way of browsing the same old crap. what’s the added value? this ‘photos flying in from different directions’ flash/silverlight thingy is getting annoying. it gets old after doing it a couple of times.
embarassingly awful, both food and food2,
the big guys have no idea and will be toast
I don’t exactly think that photo slideshows and the equivalent of an RSS feed are groundbreaking, but what do I know.
Why is he talking so loud?
Notice how many times he mentions that they’re built on Microsoft™®© .Net™®© and SilverLight™®© for Microsoft™®© Windows™®©, and I’d bet the only run on Microsoft™®© Windows™®© Internet Explorer™®© on Genuine Windows™®© Vista™®© and Seven™®© only.
Also, if the interface is so great in those Rich Windows (™®©) Applications he keeps talking about, why can’t Microsoft (™®©) make Windows’ normal UI like that? They instead made the gaudy and bulky Aero theme, which is barely composited and very rigid. There’s barely any smoothness or overall animation, as compared to the Mac.
go away, hooligan
why, he’s right.
Your kidding right, there are so many inconsistencies in the OSX interface and combine that with the overall sluggishness of the system that it’s no wonder that the’re working to hopefully fix it with snow leopard.
I have yet to see the perfect OS, but talk about throwing stones and glass houses.
Get a life man, we get it you hate Windows…
ummm… everyone hates windows
OMG that demo is sooo cooooool. Silverlight is soooo powerfull, Windows is sooooo cooool and OMG, IE8 is the best browser around ! .Net is soooo cooool.
SO COOL THAT IT MAKES ME WANNA TALK LOUDER, IT’S SO EXCITING !
I’M STOPPING LAMP+JQuery FOR WebKit DEVELOPMENT RIGHT NOW !
Isn’t it about time you went back to masturbating over your Mac?
um this is more of a demo of what MS can do with content manipulation rather than fb.
What I’m saying is, if they can make such great and smooth UIs in 72 hours for a Facebook app, why does Aero suck so bad?
Wow! This looks cool…but will this only work if the user actually has some photo album already uploaded on his/her account? What about users who has privacy settings on a particular album?
Interesting to see how successful Microsoft will be with this new rollout
This is great! Way to go Microsoft!
facebook has been growing like crazy, and i’m sure they want to keep that going, so they made a great move here opening it up a little more for hungry developers.
can this sites run fart app from inside Iphones? i liking facebook becase of best girls inside it.
fart app…WTF are you talking about?
http://macmaniapodcast.com
Dan looks like a complete douche
there is only so much you can do with facebook….I didnt see nothing exciting but hopefully there will be some interesting things coming out using this.
Snoozville. Enough about Facebook until they figure out how to generate revenue.
Anybody with $$$ can create a cool site if they don’t care about revenue.
Cool, so for $10k I can get a gallery made from facebook?
3 developer @ $50/hour (low end) X 72 hours = $10K
Thank you for demonstrating that $10K buys you approximately 6 man-weeks of work from $50/hr developers.
First off it was 3 per team, two teams, so 6 people… Second I doubt they worked 72hours straight… From starting the project to ending the project it was 72 hours, now unless M supports employees using crank to not sleep or eat for 72 hours…. I think your figures are off…
These are Microserfs we’re talking about.
Looks good re: the Silverlight stuff.
Re: the “…this is what you can do with a Windows rich internet application…”
That’s great, but I doubt any developer will go Windows only with FB apps. FB user base using Macs is a good deal higher than its current mkt share avg of about 7 percent.
MSFT’s new reality is that is **must** stop with the WIndows only approach outside the enterprise.
They must then convince developers that they are not going to “playforsure” partners of cross-OS environments like Silverlight.
I love the promise of SL, and would like to use Python for my client-side code. But, nothing I’ve seen convinces me that MSFT’s top mgmt is still not heavily investing in “Windows Only” for the best RIA experience (on Windows), and that SL will not be “playforsure’d” once mgmt thinks that they can again try to shift all RIA over to Windows only optimizations.
’til then I’m sticking with other tools
Silverlight’s big optimizations are going on the server side… to boost it’s server market share where they actually have room to grow and the margins aren’t complete shit. The improvements have nothing to do with client side enjoyment, but with faster and easier development of the code… I don’t expect MS to stop being MS, but in this case closing out Mac or Linux (any more than Flash does anyway) isn’t in their best interests.
Plus I’m guessing their Courier Tablet is going to run nothing but Silverlight apps… SL 3 is tailor build for “mostly connected” out of browser apps…
Microsoft would be so much less annoying if all of their demos didn’t include the phrase “I’m going to go ahead and…” half a million times.
Yeah, definitely needs more BOOM.
http://www.yout...h?v=r8L39UwOS-Y
This stream could become a storm!
Great googly moogly Batman!
The UI had some cool features. It also highlighted to me that Facebook data is pretty boring.
One of the only developments I’m interested in at Microsoft is their surface computing platform. It’s going to be interesting how they mash-up Facebook data with the Microsoft Surface. I can definitely see something like this being applied to a coffee table or bar near you. The possibilities of leveraging Facebook data are endless.
A Surface/Facebook application would be impressive, using the bar scenario you could exchange photos, contact information, purchase a drink for someone at the other end of the bar etc. The possibilities are endless but are we going to eventually rely on devices too much?
the real question jumping over the excitement of siting in a bar and being able to view or even upload pictures just taken to your Facebook profile, is – again – how would FB monetirize this “cool addon”. I dont see myself or anyone honestly paying extra $1 to be able to order a drink through FB application or have my friends being automatically updated with that fact for some extra cash.
Its just wont happen.
Someone asked how this helps FB make money – don’t companies pay FB to use the API?
So … it’s presenting the boring FaceBook data in yet more innovative ways? … sigh … Is it just me?
no disrespect whatsoever, but I see bunch of loosers on those photos!!
no disrespect whatsoever, but I see bunch of loosers on those photos!!
So, what’s the big deal?
I can do all of this in Python & Apache on a ‘BSD’ box, although much better, with more Bling and Blazing glory.
However, for Bill Gate’s Fan boys, an MS NT IV box, with only a dual SMP, or less, will do just fine.
Although, to get out of bed before lunch, I would like to get paid, real money, that is.
Silver what?
I trust there is a point to this, that the Linux and Open Source camp couldn’t do better.
Oh’ wait, they can, bugger!
Still, BSD is better than that, but then the MAC guys already know this.
Better luck next time, guys.
Oh, wait, you wanted to get paid for this, damn!
With Windows losing marketshare left and right, even on the desktop, laptop and especially netbook markets.. why would they promote the truly ass-backwards notion of promoting Silverlight/.net for a web based service like Facebook?
Should have used jQuery.
/me goes off to buy a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu.