developer-relations

Facebook throws platform at rivals, pokes Google

Nicholas Carlson · 12/12/07 04:51PM

Facebook wasn't invited to the OpenSocial party. Now it's throwing its own. Facebook says it will allow other social networks to use the software behind its third-party developer platform as a model. "In fact, we'll even license the Facebook Platform methods and tags to other platforms," Ami Vora writes on its Facebook Developers blog. The big loser? Well, anyone who writes apps for social networks, pretty much by definition. But also, Google.

Facebook's viral marketing catches a bug

Nicholas Carlson · 12/12/07 01:49PM

Developers write apps for Facebook not because it's a wonder of modern software, but because it lets them tap into Facebook's 60 million users. The result: a surfeit of zombie bites and Scrabble challenges, spread, in Valley parlance, "virally" from friend to friend on the social network. Last night, Facebook proved antiviral. A bug deleted all pending requests from friends to add an application. "Anyone else seeing that invitation acceptance numbers are down significantly over the past 7-8 hours?" one developer wrote in a Facebook forum. "Since about midnight PT, our signup numbers through requests/invites are about 40% lower than we'd normally expect." Facebook's response? An emoticon!