Thanks to a Facebook’s extended status updates, Twitter has improved their Facebook application so that your profile status is updated via Twitter. There had been a few developers that had developed syncing applications to perform a similar function but this new feature makes it extremely easy to update your Facebook status. For anyone that uses Twitter, you know how useful this new feature truly is.

Personally, I never really update my Facebook status. Honestly, I rarely update my twitter account but I at least do so more frequently. The only downside of the new feature is that it may take 30 minutes for your status to be updated. Aside from this, functionality is pretty seamless. Twitter has just become the Facebook status management tool. Will you stop updating your Facebook status now and let Twitter do all the work?

Thanks to Joe Grossberg at Twittersweet for the scoop!

A week ago I wrote about the I Am Hungry application being listed on eBay. Today, the auction ended with a winning bid of $20,100. Not bad for an application that has 600 average daily users and no growth. The application has over 250,000 users but none of the user information has been stored in the database. This amounts to a whopping $33 per active user!

It looks like whoever purchased the application used the Adonomics valuation. Based on their statistics, the buyer of this application got a $4,000 discount. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what the buyer of this application is going to get from their investment. They have very few active users. For those of you who missed out on purchasing this application: go start a blog and write in it once a day and you will end up with almost as many daily visitors. If you can’t believe it, go check out the eBay auction.

Update
Apparently you can update the profile box of each of the users. The owner can now at least do that which is pretty useful. There is no way of telling how many users still have the profile box showing though.

Facebook has been receiving a lot of press recently over a potential $500 million Microsoft investment resulting in a $10 billion valuation. The only way Facebook can justify such a high valuation is by becoming the social backbone of the web. As I’ve previously mentioned, Facebook and Google are going to become the two primary companies leading the charge in attempting to own our social graphs. Dave Winer has it wrong when he says that people should just call Facebook a social network.

I would agree if it weren’t for the fact that Facebook is not stopping at just being a place for friends to communicate. Both Google and Facebook are now attempting to accomplish what OpenID failed at doing: own your identity in terms of your social relationships. The only way that this will work for Facebook is if they take down the walls of their existing social network.

Not even I, a self-proclaimed Facebook evangelist, believe that the web is going to exist within Facebook. Pigs will fly before the entire internet decides to all become blue and white. It just won’t happen. All the competing social networks are going to launch platforms as well but none of them have been as successful with mapping our real life connections. To really validate a $10 billion or $15 billion valuation, Facebook will have to become the social backbone of the web or at least attempt to become it.

The company that is going to win the race to become the owner of the “social backbone” is going to have to be completely open. The web as a whole, will simply not work within the confines of Facebook. Alternatively, Facebook can choose to keep up the wall, remain a social platform and go down in history as the most hyped, most overvalued social network in history. Which choice do you think they will make?

Last night, Kristen Nicole pointed out a new advertising system on Facebook that enables you to display ads on the side of Facebook applications. The only problem with these ads is that they go right where Facebook’s existing flyer ads are displayed. Doesn’t this violate Facebook’s terms of services? If it doesn’t I’m sure Facebook will quickly revise their terms to prohibit the placement of ads within existing Facebook ad placement locations. So far, the Flyer Exchange has provided less than 2000 clicks in total to advertisers and honestly I don’t see them getting much further. So how does Flyer Exchange work?

Currently, Flyer Exchange works on a point based system. You can pay for points or you can earn points by placing flyers on your existing application. You then earn 1 point for each unique user that clicks your flyer. You can then place your own flyers to advertise your own website or application and are charged 1 point for each click. The current cash value of points earned from clicks are $0.20 and the current cost of of points is $0.10. You may see this as an arbitrage opportunity (as I did), but unfortunately it is not. The current cash out rate of $0.20 is a promotion. To prevent users from cashing out points at a price higher than they can buy them, users who buy points this week won’t be allowed to cash out until next Friday October 5th.

For those of you that are looking for another advertising channel or monetization source on Facebook, go grab the Flyer Exchange application while it lasts. I don’t see this one sticking around for too long.

Over the past few months, Facebook has witnessed a growing base of dedicated platform developers. Launching hundreds of applications a day, these developers are hoping to grab a piece of the extremely valuable Facebook real estate. Except for the Linux and Microsoft operating systems, I have never seen such a dedicated base of developers. These developers are working night and day to launch what they hope to be the next popular application on Facebook. There’s one thing that Facebook gets to enjoy currently: no competition.

Facebook is not simply a social network, they are a social platform and currently there is nobody in the space. Facebook will have a whopping 6 month lead on all competitors (at a minimum) and that lead may continue to grow. What will happen when the new platforms launch though? Are the 120,000 developers (120,000 have added the developer application but the majority have not built an app) that are currently on Facebook going to go to another platform? Definitely!

Facebook has been working hard to help build a developer community through their Facebook Developer Garages (as I posted about yesterday) and through the developer forum. I would guess that we are going to see a significant slowdown in the growth of new applications once MySpace and competing platforms launch. Those developers that have built significant properties on Facebook will continue to be dedicated to Facebook but they are also going to try to expand outside of Facebook. The developers that have not built a significant presence due to the increasing barrier to success are going to go elsewhere and potentially not look back.

So what does Facebook need to do? Well there are a number of things (some of which I will be covering in the next couple days), but the primary thing is to continue providing significant incentives to developers. As the likelihood of building a large user base on Facebook (without investing in marketing) decreases, Facebook is going to need to provide new services and offerings for developers. Any suggestions about what those should be?

Back in August I suggested that if Facebook allowed you to place your friends in specific groups (e.g. professional, social, family, etc) and assign custom privacy settings, LinkedIn would be doomed. While Facebook is going to have to work toward putting an end to LinkedIn, they have announced their intention to launch this new feature. Facebook states:

We’ll let you organize that long list of friends into groups so you can decide more specifically who sees what.

As Alexey Komissarouk told me: it doesn’t get more official then that. This is a highly anticipated feature. A number of people posted comments on my article stating that this was a critical feature that Facebook should release in the near future. I couldn’t agree more and fortunately, it looks like they are listening. Are you going to stop using LinkedIn when this new feature comes out?

Yesterday Fortune published “Are we already moving on from traditional social networking?” Much of what was discussed was Netvibes and how they are struggling with monetization solutions for widgets. What grabbed my attention was the article title. My response to the question: are we moving on from traditional social networking? Yes! Is social networking doomed? No.

There used to be a battle between social networks to simply build their user base. Since then the battlegrounds have changed locations. The new battle is between the top tier social networks (and Google) who are now attempting to own the social backbone of each individual. We all have unique interests and as such we will browse the web for information we are interested in. Rather than just interacting with the website we are going to start interacting with both strangers and friends that are viewing the site.

This is already beginning to happen with the Facebook. The best applications provide social interaction with your friends. Once Google launches their platform, I have a feeling that we are going to see this social platform brought to the web. You browse the web but you are interconnected via an abstracted layer that keeps you interconnected with your contacts. The main goal of all these features is to make web browsing an increasingly shared experience. Out of curiosity, do you feel lonely browsing websites without your friends or do you prefer surfing solo?

I am pleased to announce the official Facebook Developers Garage taking place in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 2007. This is being hosted the day after the Facebook political summit. That event already has 180 confirmed guests! We have yet to pick a location so if your company would be interested in hosting the event (and are close to a metro) please send me an email at allfacebook [AT] gmail [DOT] com. So what is the Facebook Developers Garage anyways? As described by Facebook:

Garages are just like they sound – a place for you to explore, get gritty, tinker, experiment, and test out your ideas for Facebook Platform. Being in the Garage is all about participating, getting your hands dirty, and exploring fresh ideas and solutions.

Most Garages will offer you the opportunity to give a 5-10 minute brief presentation or case study on your App – you can show and tell, get feedback, highlight any novel techniques you’re using, or hunt for partners. So far popular topics include: optimizing product design, best practices for viral growth, tricks for testing your app, metrics for success, ninja code tricks…the usual. Pretty much anything goes.

In general, Garages will welcome ad hoc presentations, brainstorming sessions with other developers, and social interaction time. Some Garages will also offer some Q&A time with Facebook Platform Engineers, either via video conference or in person. Most will also provide food, power, and wireless connectivity. Check your area’s Facebook Developer Garage for specific details about what to bring or what to expect.

If you are interested in attending then go join the Facebook Developer Garage – Washington DC event on Facebook. Hope to see you there!

Earlier this morning I posted about how the best ad networks will be able to target ads based on user intentions. If any application was a test of intentions, the Likeness UNRATED application surely is. The first quiz you are given states “List the crimes you are MOST likely to commit first.” This is hillarious! Does my response express my intention to do so? Is the FBI tracking this? I’m not quite sure but this application definitely is entertaining. The options for the first quiz that you are asked to sort are:

• Buy drugs
• Drive drunk
• Shoot cheating lover
• Sex for money
• Shoplift
• Arson
• Rob a bank
• Sell drugs
• Cheat on taxes
• Steal a car

I won’t disclose what order I placed these in but this is definitely a risqué app. The other quizzes that are available are “Excuses to have sex,” “Truth or dare,” “Excuses for No Sex,” “Places to Make Out,” “Misadventures in Sex,” and “Inner Criminal.” See a pattern here? It looks like RockYou intends to add quiz creation capabilities to this application in the near future. One great feature of this application is it tells you how closely your other friends were in answering these truly insignificant questions. If you want to have fun answering unrated and uncensored questions, go grab the Likeness UNRATED application.

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past week, you have probably heard about the atrocities taking place in Burma. A similar event occurred 19 years ago when 4,000 people were killed in response to pro-democracy uprising. The same thing is happening again and a large number of people on Facebook are organizing worldwide protests in response to the events.

One group, “Support the Monks’ protest in Burma” was adding over 3,000 users an hour at its peak. The group has now attracted over 100,000 individuals and still continues to grow. The group is a central place for the group administrators to distribute news and information regarding protests taking place worldwide today and tomorrow. I went ahead and joined the group but it can definitely use more people. I won’t wax-poetic about the issue given that this isn’t a political blog. If you want to express your support of the Burmese monks, go join the group.