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Facebook Opens Pages to Outside Developers

Posted by CowboyNeal on Fri May 25, 2007 03:55 AM
from the rolling-your-own dept.
Programming The Internet
prostoalex writes "Facebook is now allowing third-party developers to create pages within the site. Developers can use a combination of the Facebook API and a subset of HTML to create interactive pages accessible from within Facebook. Users retain complete control over which applications they want to have installed, and which applications they want to see on other people's profile. Developers can build on top of Facebook's social grid, and in case of a popular application gain distribution through Facebook newsfeed."

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[+] Your Rights Online: Photo Tagging as a Privacy Problem? 143 comments
An anonymous reader writes "The Harvard Law Review, a journal for legal scholarship, recently published a short piece on the privacy implications of online photo-tagging (pdf). The anonymously penned piece dourly concludes that 'privacy law, in its current form, is of no help to those unwillingly tagged.' Focusing on the privacy threat from newly emergent automatic facial recognition search engines', like Polar Rose but not Flickr or Facebook, the article states that 'for several reasons, existing privacy law is simply ill-suited for this new invasion.' The article suggests that Congress create a photo-tagging opt-out system, similar to what they did with telemarketing calls and the Do-Not-Call Registry." How would you enforce such a registry, though?
[+] Developers: Facebook Apps Facing Delays and Uncertainties 82 comments
NewsCloud writes "After reading about the Facebook platform launch, I spent the next week learning the API and building my application. Facebook's platform has been pretty successful despite complaints of poor documentation, instability and outcries over its application approval process. I've been waiting two weeks for my application to be approved for their directory and had my account disabled (temporarily) after I invited a large number of colleagues. While I'm impressed with the potential of the platform, the experience has made me more concerned about the lack of transparency in privately held social networks and the risks we take as developers when we invest time in a company's platform. Facebook's home page advertises itself as "a social utility that connects you with the people around you." My concern with Facebook is that there's no one regulating the utility."
[+] Facebook Acquires Parakey's Web OS Platform 64 comments
NaijaGuy writes "Facebook has purchased Parakey for an undisclosed sum. We have previously discussed how Facebook recently opened up development opportunities for third-party developers. With this acquisition some observers have noted that Facebook might be trying to become a Google alternative, by providing an application development platform based on Parakey's technology. Facebook's 'Web OS' has also been discussed, and the company has made headlines partly because of the fame of one of its founders. Blake Ross helped launch Firefox, and it was enthusiasm for helping less geeky users like his mom to thrive on the web that got him through the doors of Netscape at the age of 15. A recent interview charts how that same enthusiasm led him to start Parakey, 'a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do.'"
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  • Just what Facebook needs (Score:3, Insightful)

    by simong (32944) on Friday May 25, @04:10AM (#19267135)
    (http://www.conversal.co.uk/)
    The ability to make home pages look as shitty as Myspace. I hope they've implemented a taste filter that prevents fluorescent green paisley backgrounds is all.

  • MySpace, anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ninjafirepants (1077233) on Friday May 25, @04:10AM (#19267139)
    So this is where Facebook takes a stab at MySpace's success. People like MySpace because they can do whatever they want with it. Pink text on red background with four movies and three songs all going at once? Why not make the page blink, too? Yes, friends, it's all possible via MySpace.

    Now, it looks as though Facebook wants in on the game, too. What I loved about Facebook was the simplicity of design that it keeps losing with every new feature and redesign. The site slows down and becomes less usable. Time will only tell if it stays clean and modular like the screenshot in the article shows, or if it's one more weapon in Facebook's arsenal of bloat.

    At least Facebook still works, unlike the piece of crap they call MySpace. Seriously, Tom needs to learn how to make stuff that doesn't break without fail every time I try to use it. Until then, he's not my friend.

  • In an article in Fortune [cnn.com], Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said "We want to make Facebook into something of an operating system so you can run full applications". Is this why he consults frequently with Microsoft chief software architect Ray Ozzie [blogforward.com]?

    I assume even bigger changes are ahead.

  • Hmmm.. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Solokron (198043) on Friday May 25, @04:30AM (#19267253)
    Although MySpace customizations can be very annoying, it is also part of its success. Being able to customize your profile to better reflect your tastes is part of what has helped MySpace skyrocket over competitors. Taking a plain, boring, white background profile and making it your own can be very gratifying. People can spend hours upon hours customizing their own little site testing it out, MySpace banner ads get more and more impressions, that person then in turns shows it off to all their friends (or people they just have on their list as friends), and MySpace continues to accumulate ad impressions. Although there are more crappy MySpace profiles, there are some profiles that really capitalize on dhtml and flash knowledge and even with limitations imposed, are very impressive. Any feature that keeps people coming back to their website is really what they want and Facebooks direction makes perfect sense.

  • MS-Facebook 2.0 (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Speedracer1870 (1041248) on Friday May 25, @04:44AM (#19267315)
    Does this mean that facebook will become as crappy as microsoft or will they just start storing all my info for *undisclosed* purposes? I knew as soon as facebook opened up to the public it would be more than just kids at my own college stalking me...
  • If the codebase can be kept clean. I have a couple of ideas for plugins all ready.

  • Facebook != Myspace (Score:5, Informative)

    by beset (745752) on Friday May 25, @04:52AM (#19267347)
    (http://www.tyrereviews.co.uk/)
    Queue all the "OMG FACEBOOK WILL BECOMES MYSAPCE!!!!1" comments...

    Under it's current ownership I can't see that happening. The site is run by developers (which is great in my opinion).

    If you don't believe me go and check their blog. Failing that try and change your name and you're presented with...

    # Your Facebook profile must be attached to your real name.
    # You must include your full name.
    # Celebrity names, nicknames, or other fake names are not allowed and will not be approved.
    # Obscenity, curses, and swear words are not allowed and will not be approved.
    # ISn't~ ThIs 3 AnN0YiNg 2 ReAd? Non-standard capitalization and special characters are not allowed and will not be approved.
    # Do not try to combine sentences into one word; Jane Lookatmysupercoolnewnickname Smith will not be approved.
  • ...all in one! think of facebook as an open identity that will connect freely with any web app. this is what i've been waiting for!

  • Developers? (Score:1)

    by CRC'99 (96526) on Friday May 25, @05:58AM (#19267623)
    (http://www.crc.id.au/)
    Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers.

    Watch out, if I say it any more times I'll attract the chair-throwing monkey boy and then Facebook has no chance!
  • I've read the Forbes article and it doesn't sound like Facebook will become a MySpace soon... but still, do we still care for all these proprietary social networks merely striving to lock-in users? Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Orkut, Friendster, localized networks like Hyves (big over here in .nl)... they all want more eyeballs (== more $$$), it's just that their way to generate more pageviews is different.

    Maybe I'm just getting old (queue the GOML-quotes), but I don't see the point in investing time into developing for Facebook. In two or three years, a new YASN will have all the kid's attention. Although you might get a short-term boost in eyeballs now by developing using this API, the drawback is that once Facebook goes south you will be sucked down with it. eBay has been here for >10 years and will still be here over 10 years because it has critical mass and doesn't depend on a third party to survive.

    Now an open meta-YASN engine, which gives me one page/feed with all my contacts over all these networks, that might be an improvement.
  • Facebook has become so popular among us 20-something crowd because it is NOT MySpace. It is a way to connect that is clean and organized, and not full of crap and clutter from tweens who think they know anything about web design. It is simple, slick, and does it's job very well.

    I fear that going down this path they may be descending into MySpace-hell. I hope this is not the beginning of the end of the usfulness of facebook.

  • Let the viewer disable the themes? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nim82 (838705) on Friday May 25, @06:41AM (#19267845)
    Myspace, Bebo etc wouldn't be half as bad if you could choose to render all the sites you view in either your own chosen theme, or as a generic preset - overriding the shite. I use ffox extensions (such as stylish) to nerf most crap on these sites currently, but would much rather there were just a tickbox in the user pref's that would provide a similar result.

    Alternatively, lock the style and offer some sensible preset colour schemes, like most web forums do.

  • with all the continuing 'growth' (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 25, @07:47AM (#19268365)
    it's a shame that a social networking site that was actually somewhat useful and cool is becoming a huge money venture instead of just being a good tool for keeping up with people. as it grows more complicated i (and other users too perhaps?) get fed up with all the extra crap everywhere and the extra demand one is placed under to simply maintain a presence there. how much longer is it going to be until everyone who doesnt want a myspace is going to have to leave facebook for that reason?

  • I think I missed something ... (Score:2, Informative)

    by openldev (925511) on Friday May 25, @08:13AM (#19268659)
    (http://www.ajkrause.net/)
    They launched the Facebook API months ago.

  • Not Like MySpace (Score:4, Informative)

    by the cheong (1053282) on Friday May 25, @08:27AM (#19268807)
    (http://www.thecheong.com/)
    The Facebook API was released many months ago, and it does not lead to pages like MySpace. The Facebook pages itself do not change at all; the layout will be consistent throughout the whole networking site, as it always has been. The API allows developers to access facebook's information and create applications OUTSIDE of Facebook. For example, one application might make a powerpoint photo slideshow of all your photos on facebook. Or another application might use information to match up people into relationships.

  • facebook faq (Score:2, Informative)

    by babooo404 (1019760) on Friday May 25, @09:14AM (#19269453)
    fyi, the list of all participating companies plus a faq on the platform is here: http://www.centernetworks.com/facebook-announcemen t-facebook-platform [centernetworks.com]

  • Has it all gone Wrong? (Score:1)

    by TP2k (1096999) on Friday May 25, @10:49AM (#19270855)
    Trying to log in to facebook at the moment give me this response:

    Hey, your account is temporarily unavailable due to site maintenance. It should be available again within a few hours. We apologize for the inconvenience.
    In the past I have found facebook to be fairly stable, do you think that a rush of 3rd party plugins could of just been too much and brought the site down. Or is it just a strange coencidence?
  • Love 'em or hate 'em but Microsoft has a cool idea with Popfly in that they're providing a tool for NON-DEVELOPERS to build applications for "platforms" like Facebook. Drag and drop a few objects written by real developers and connect them and modify them in ways that you want and you have an application. This is markedly different than Yahoo Tubes which is clearly targeted at coders. I'm not sure if Facebook will be a huge success as a platform but if MSFT can make Popfly easy enough for anybody to use then they'll be successful in lots of places including Facebook.
  • Google already owns Orkut -- that would be overkill.
    [ Parent ]

  • scripting (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Locklin (1074657) on Friday May 25, @06:53AM (#19267917)
    (http://science.uwaterloo.ca/~jalockli)
    So how long before someone manages to get a nice x-site script into their page. This could be rather annoying since facebook doesn't work without javascript turned on.
    [ Parent ]
  • 7 replies beneath your current threshold.

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