Nearly a year after it was originally announced , Facebook’s Verified Applications program is finally preparing to go live, with plans to deploy it in the next few weeks. The program will likely play a key role in the success of applications going forward, and is something that has really been needed since day one.
One of the longstanding issues with Facebook Platform is that it largely fails to weed out the terrible, spammy apps from the good ones. And with 52,000 applications available on the platform, that’s a problem. Sure, you could always look at user reviews to see how an application was viewed by the community, but I’d rather have Facebook’s stamp of approval before I go handing my personal data to an anonymous developer.
This will only become more important once Facebook deploys its long-awaited Payment Platform, which is also about the begin testing with a limited number of developers. Facebook may be able to make sure that your transactions will be secure through the coming platform, but it won’t be able to guarantee that the virtual goods that you’re actually paying for will be worth the pixels they’re printed on, unless they’re from Verified Applications.
The news has been a long time coming. Developers have been growing antsy since paying the program’s $375 annual fee without any indication as to when it would actually launch other than “early 2009″.
Alongside the launch of Verified Apps, Facebook is also making some major changes to the way its application directory runs. The application directory’s homepage is now taking a News Feed format, displaying some of your friend’s recent activities from other third party apps. This is a big change, as it will help applications virally spread between friends (if I see my friend is playing a certain game, I’ll be more likely to join that one than another game).
The other major change is to the way Facebook application profiles are dealt with. Previously application pages were similar to Facebook groups – you could see a basic list of conversations going on around an app as well as some reviews. Now they’re going to be treated like public profile pages, which means application developers will be able to communicate with users through their News Feed updates. Facebook will also be tweaking the available categories for applications, which have been the same since the platform’s launch in 2007.
typo: “announced”
Thanks, fixed
Is this Verification going to cost money?
Yes, it costs developers $375 per year.
well thats incredibly lame. Some of us have legit apps that dont make much money off of.
B, it’s worth the investment though, particularly with all these Facebook worms and other issues going on. Trust is everything.
By the way, anyone else reminisce about the old “Nintendo seal of quality” when looking at the Facebook seal?
You are right. There are many developers out there who develop amazing apps just for fun. This is going to put the little guy’s app in the same bucket as spammers. If digg and reddit can democratize news with hundreds and thousands of links, it is hard to believe that fb couldn’t implement a community feature to tackle apps. Lame!
Any date/timeframe for the launch?
“Recognizing apps that embody our principles” – Given the current spat over the Holocaust denial, will Holocaust denial apps be recognized for embodying their principles?
Is Facebook even relevant anymore? I mean, the fad has already died for many people.
FB is not a fad. Twitter on the other hand…
What do you mean “fad”? Facebook’s is a well established website and is increasing its traffic every month.
http://www.enbargain.com
huh!?! echo?
I’ts about time that this happened.
Facebook Is a massive canvas for developers.
Hmm…
Now I say this with a complete understanding that there are an inundation of Facebook apps. And that it is basically impossible (outside of establishing your own system) to determine which app to use over the others…. but….
I just can’t help but feel like allowing Facebook to determine which apps are verified is a very slippery slope. I have friends who work at and have worked at Facebook — what if they decide to pick a market that is saturated (say SMS messaging), develop a similar technology and then miraculously their app is verified. I know this sounds very “but there really are UFOs!!” but lets not be naive.
Why not just filter apps by amount of users and let the cream rise?
|digitalzaar|
If we assume that it isn’t zero-sum and all apps that meet criteria are verified, then what happens to apps that fail to meet criteria?
Any info on that?
|digitalzaar|
That’s pretty interesting. I think the leading app directories are Facebook, Salesforce’s AppExchange, and iTunes. That said, I think FB gets the blunt of crappy apps.
I think the verified app will do WONDERS in releasing the ’spammy apps’. This perhaps will trigger me to start downloading FB apps again.
who cares about facebook? the party is over.
So when do they install the ability to disable _ALL_ third party apps? I couldn’t care less which stereotyped personality some quiz writer says you are.