Facebook Platform: The State of the Apps
Published by Blake Robinson February 15th, 2008 in Facebook Applications, Facebook f8 platform, facebook Business, facebook developer.There is a fundamental flaw in the overall state of Facebook applications. The issue as I see it is that for a venue with as much potential Facebook, the apps built on its platform have no real use (other than diversionary). It seems as though almost every Facebook app is something irrelevant, some way to compare friends or some ridiculous game (there are some exceptions).
Facebook took important steps in the past week first throttling the amount of invites apps can send per user and next eliminating the practice of forced invites. This will undoubtedly prove to sharpen the available apps as they’ll have to rely more on utility than gimmick, but the results won’t be felt immediately and it’s unclear to what degree this will change things.
With Facebook maintaining over 64 million active users, there is massive potential to create media rich apps that actually bring something to the table. Developers need to focus more on augmenting the methods in which Facebookers connect, rather than simply creating workplace diversions.
A clear direction for this is to deliver ways for individuals to meet new people. Facebook is highly effective at connecting people to people they know, but it has done little to facilitate new connections — which is one of the greatest potentials of social networking and Web 2.0 as a whole.
Utilizing Facebook to create new and tangible real world will could prove the most profitable route any Platform developer could take. And I’m not talking just about dating, though that’d be an obvious route. If an app could create a way to connect people based on business and/or ideas, it could quickly usurp the validity of LinkedIn — a service that remains tenuous due to its paid model.
It didn’t take me to make this deduction, but there are enough games on the Internet (more than enough, really). Now is the time to harvest the unprecedented level of connectivity available between individuals. Work on developing that and your apps will spread faster than any Zombie plague.
Technorati Tags: facebook, facebook platform, facebook apps, utility, shortcomings
8 Responses to “Facebook Platform: The State of the Apps”
- 1 Pingback on Feb 18th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Hi Blake,
I share your views that there are no serious applications in Facebook which are of some utility to people.
Just wanted to highlight that we have launched an Ecommerce application on facebook, and we believe in growing this into a serious utility app.
Do have a look at the application in your spare time, and any suggestions/reviews / improvement hightlights are welcome.
We are readying our application for an integration with Bebo, currently.
Just to give an overview, we have introduced some new concepts wherein users can post to select groups / networks only. Features are also provided for bargaining between 2 friends, apart from the usual auction type sales. There is a main Global Market through which posts can reach out to users in other Social Networks.
Thanks,
Santosh
The links for the Ecommerce application mentioned in the previous response
http://apps.facebook.com/simpleicom
People want to engage each other in a variety of ways, one of which is to share in a commonly appreciated activity, or in an activity that is an expression of some shared interest. In some (maybe many) cases, this is in the form of a game or game-like activity.
So, while not a utility in the definitive sense, apps like this do provide utility - they allow users to engage each other and to form new social connections.
We designed Just Three Words with this in mind. It attracts among others writing afficianados, writers, and improvisation artists. And they have forged friendships with each other via the app. In other words, our game has facilitated new connections for users that did not exist in their social graph prior to using our app, and we’ve added significant value to their FB experience.
This same facilitation could take place within other games that although are in one sense diversionary are also avocational for many people. Poker and scrabble come to mind. As does writing
There are at least two approaches to creating vehicles in which people can create new connections: the first is by explicit expression(my expressed Interests/Books/Movies are like yours, hey lets connect), and behavioral expression (I’m playing a word game, you’re playing a word game and I noticed we work well together, hey lets connect). Apps can be created, both utilitarian or diversionary, for each of these example cases (among others).
I think that there is plenty of room for applications of discovery and applications of entertainment; what we need to see is greater imagination behind both kinds of apps now that “What Kind Of Cigarette Butt Are You” apps have probably now been given their death knell.
One more thing: I think that apps you’re calling for are out there & need to be uncovered. Certainly mine (JTW) qualifies as more than diversionary, and has the potential for wider educational use. To say that almost every app is something irrelevant is reasonably inarguable; it also implies that there are some that are not irrelevant!! Your blog has been an excellent forum for reportage re: Facebook. So with that in mind.. what apps do you think fit the model of quality apps?
Blake: I agree with your assessment. Being new to Facebook, what existing FB functionality has “the hooks” for making new connections between people?
Blake -
Very interesting take, but I think your premise needs to be expanded a bit. I view FB as a content delivery platform - in many ways it has the same key attributes as it’s predecessors, Radio TV and even the Telephone.
People often get locked in to viewing FB as strictly diversionary, or they want to move it to more a utilitarian focus - in the end it’s the ability to take the 3 most powerful forms of content delivery (Radio, TV and the Telephone) and fuse them into one via the Internet.
I won’t go into the minutia of why FB has the key content delivery attributes of the BIG three - but here’s a quick summary:
1. Radio (Feed and Mini-Feed)
- Mass broadcast of information, music, and even User Generated Content (talk radio)
2. TV (Photo Albums, Profile Pics)
- Broadbase entertainment, selling (HSN), advertising (Infomercials), information dissemination
3. Telephone (Calendar, Events, Networks)
- Personal interaction, socialization, event/activity coordination, etc.
The real power of FB isn’t that it embodies these key attributes - but that it enables the *bundling* of these based on each application’s consumer base. FB gives you the mass communication and entertainment features of Radio and TV while enabling easy personal interaction and socialization of the Telephone.
The problem with FB developer’s today is many are simply building apps that mimic just one of these powerful platforms. Instead they should be focusing on ways to create totally new methods using ALL three!
Until FB developers start to understand this simple - yet powerful, compelling and even life changing capability, they’ll never be able to take advantage of what the FB platform offers.
DT
Hi Blake,
While I agree with your view that apps need to move to the next level, I think it is also important to allow a userbase to naturally progress to the next level as well;
If all the apps are something irrelevant, and users have installed 850 million of them (as per adonomics), then maybe that’s the current user taste as well!
Finally, yes it is important to develop the next level of apps and many companies have already started doing that. However, if facebook restricts the ability for an app to grow via invites & notifications, even a relevant app will not be able to stand out in the crowd of irrelevant apps.