

Is the redesign killing Facebook apps? Yes, say app developers - pakafka
http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/is-the-redesign-killing-facebook-apps-

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shimon
The facebook redesign is indeed hurting many existing apps. But it's one of
those things that hurts in the short term but will help in the long term. Or
at least I think that's the intention.

Firstly, the type of app that is currently dominant, i.e. the "Joe bit you,
CLICK HERE TO BITE HIM BACK" junk, does indeed need to die. I don't think
Facebook initially intended for this type of thing to be the dominant form of
facebook app, but the amount of distribution power they exposed was a new
thing for app developers and users. So we've all installed the zombie app now.
Whoopee. It's time to trade away some of the noise that comes from fad apps
and instead promote some serious apps. Apps that might be useful to people
even when sober.

That's why I'm pleased that, alongside the redesign, facebook is exposing more
and more of the API you'd need to do serious things on facebook. For example,
just a month or two ago they finally released an API call that can create
facebook events. In case you hadn't noticed, facebook events are one of the
most useful features in FB, and letting third-party apps connect more
meaningfully with the built-in Events app will probably make them more useful.
That's certainly going to be the case for an app I'm currently building (for a
client) that helps you get from "I wanna see a movie next week" to specific
plans with a guest list. One of the most common responses to this app is "wow,
finally a facebook app that's actually intended to be useful". If zombies and
its ilk continue to get prime billing, people will eventually assume that all
apps are trivial and the whole platform will be written off by most users.
Preventing that is the long-term benefit.

Finally, this article is just not credible. Suppose your app started to lose
traffic around the time of the redesign. You'd have one of those sad-looking
graphs and you'd feel shitty. Maybe you were just unlucky? Maybe August just
happened to be the point when your fad started dying down? Why make your app
better when you could just blame facebook!

That said, Facebook's platform doesn't come with any guarantees. Facebook Inc.
can make or break you if they ever decide to care. AFAIK they've been more
reasonable than, say, Apple+iPhone, but Facebook dependence is a big risk.
This may actually be another thing they should try to solve in order to
motivate more serious app development.

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aggieben
If I never saw another Facebook app I'd never even miss them.

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pxlpshr
you and me both.

I also question the so-called diligence of VCs who invested in fb app
developers believing a viable and sustainable model existed. Why? Here are a
few of my reasons: 1. social flight 2\. arrogant leadership (i'm CEO bitch) 3.
unstable platform in regard to design changes (fb is fb, it's not an OS).

Now, I certainly feel a few indies and bootstrappers can make a great
salary... but 10:1 return is high-risk and an unlikely scenario, IMO. I dunno,
maybe I'm bias because I've been a long time user of fb (having left both
Friendster and MySpace) and absolutely can't stand 99% of the fb apps.

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gaius
I think the app market is barely in its infancy.

F'rinstance, why hasn't Vue subclassed the FB Event app to create a cinema
trip event that automagically books your ticket? Or Dominos to order pizza for
my 'Night of Mayhem'? That's where the value will come from. These all seem so
obvious to me...

~~~
pxlpshr
Good point... but I'm in the boat of "I don't want a swiss-army knife, social
website, thing-a-ma-jig"... I want facebook to be good at one thing, which it
once was and is no longer. As such, I visit fb about three-quarters as much as
I use to...

Similarly, this is why I feel AAPL has gained market share, while MS lags
behind tripping over LEGACY support while attempting to please every need of
their customer base. And another example is 37signals.

However, like I said... my opinion might be bias. It's hard for me to be
objective about Facebook given my distaste for it's recent shifts, and having
loved the former.

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gabrielleydon
OH yes the redesign is killing apps. But wasnt that the point?

~~~
volida
how do you know that?

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ken
This highlights one of the biggest problems I have with web apps. The flip
side of "you can instantly upgrade all users of your software" is "your users
are all forced to use the latest version, whether they like it or not".

In the old days, if you didn't like the new version, you simply didn't
upgrade. Nothing would stop you from running the old version. (I'm still using
a 2001 version of an app which has had 3 major releases since then.)

With open-source, you had the option not only of sticking with the old
version, but maintaining it.

Web apps, in this respect, are a step backwards: you can't even run the old
version. If you're lucky, they might include an "Older version" link (GMail),
but chances are they'll just remove features without even updating the docs
(Google Maps). (But I'm not bitter.)

In the economic sense, you used to have to compete with not just your
competitors, but with older versions of yourself. On the web, this self-
competition is removed. Also, web apps tend to have strong network effects
(who's the #2 Facebook or Twitter?), and make it very difficult to get your
data out. Great for startups, bad for users.

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nickb
Don't be a sharecropper. Never base your primary business on a platform that's
not completely open because if you do, you will suffer and you will be
governed by someone else's whims. Think of all these proprietary platforms as
marketing venues or ways to monetize portions of your revenue. But never base
your core around them.

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steveplace
It's terrible! The new layout is most certainly not conducive to my sheep-
throwing.

