We will soon approach the six-month anniversary of the Facebook platform. By that time, close to 10,000 applications will have been launched a few of which will have experienced phenomenal growth, the majority of which will have failed to turn their developers into overnight rockstars. By the time the six-month anniversary rolls around, hopefully a few of the OpenSocial platforms will have launched. Chances are, most will not.
Just a few months back, many of us that became part of this Facebook ecosystem were preaching that soon enough the golden apps of Facebook would arrive. While I have seen two that may be those golden applications (Restaurants and CourseFeed), neither of those apps have sparked a webwide revolution. Perhaps my expectations of the golden application were overblown or perhaps those applications are still under development.
Whatever the case may be, it is only right to at some point ask if much of what is taking place is simply hype. Once OpenSocial stabalizes and becomes a viable distribution channel for social application providers, will all the web products suddenly become widgitized or converted into social apps? While I believe that RockYou, iLike, Slide and a few other teams of developers will eventually be able to successfully monetize their offerings, I am beginning to question the viability of social applications as a business. Am I being overly critical or are social applications really the hype of 2007?
What hype? Google's announcement barely splashed in the world. I only know anything about it because I have been following it. But my actual comment is that what you're seeing is the transformation of the closed data systems to the open ones, a transformation that FB started. But next, because of what facebook started and what Google is promising, we're going to see the change from using a 'social networking' site as a discreet home page or portal, to your own, and indeed all web sites, having social functionality that lets the data flow through. Security of my information is still a paramount concern of mine.
Comment by Eli Jones — November 3, 2007 @ 7:47 am
What hype? Google's announcement barely splashed in the world. I only know anything about it because I have been following it. But my actual comment is that what you're seeing is the transformation of the closed data systems to the open ones, a transformation that FB started. But next, because of what facebook started and what Google is promising, we're going to see the change from using a 'social networking' site as a discreet home page or portal, to your own, and indeed all web sites, having social functionality that lets the data flow through. Security of my information is still a paramount concern of mine.
Comment by Eli Jones — November 3, 2007 @ 8:47 am
If Facebook launches an ad network and allows developers to join and place ads on their canvas pages then I think many apps will live up to their hype. Right now it is difficult to monetize because it has to be done so differently with applications.
Comment by Andrew — November 3, 2007 @ 9:01 am
-AlsoIt's only 6 months since it's launch! I think that the over hyped apps will disappear over the next 6 months and the real winners will appear. Give it some time.
Comment by Andrew — November 3, 2007 @ 9:03 am
-Also
It's only 6 months since it's launch! I think that the over hyped apps will disappear over the next 6 months and the real winners will appear. Give it some time.
Comment by Andrew — November 3, 2007 @ 10:03 am
i love facebook, spend hours a day on it and its the first network ive ever joined (im a 29yr old developer). i have yet to see some real value apps and dont see how Opensocial will make it easier to make them.I think SocialAds is a much more important move. If those ads are really more targetted, Id imagine alot of people dropping adsense for SocialAds. This has far greater value than vampires & pirates and getting sheep thrown at you.
Comment by stef — November 3, 2007 @ 11:25 am
Hello,In the other hand, and from the way I see it. I am a developer who paid to get dedi servers to start applications on for example. I invested 30 days learning FBML, 14 days now writing my application (i'm a PRO coder) and after all i do deserve the chance to be an overnight rockstar.
PS> Chances are very low on getting popular i agree, its a tough market there and people are so moody picking up their facebook stuff. It's more a luck matter that all hype.
Comment by Ruslan Abuzant — November 3, 2007 @ 11:46 am
i love facebook, spend hours a day on it and its the first network ive ever joined (im a 29yr old developer). i have yet to see some real value apps and dont see how Opensocial will make it easier to make them.
I think SocialAds is a much more important move. If those ads are really more targetted, Id imagine alot of people dropping adsense for SocialAds. This has far greater value than vampires & pirates and getting sheep thrown at you.
Comment by stef — November 3, 2007 @ 12:25 pm
Hello,
In the other hand, and from the way I see it. I am a developer who paid to get dedi servers to start applications on for example. I invested 30 days learning FBML, 14 days now writing my application (i'm a PRO coder) and after all i do deserve the chance to be an overnight rockstar.
PS> Chances are very low on getting popular i agree, its a tough market there and people are so moody picking up their facebook stuff. It's more a luck matter that all hype.
Comment by Ruslan Abuzant — November 3, 2007 @ 12:46 pm
If Facebook launches an ad network and allows developers to join and place ads on their canvas pages then I think many apps will live up to their hype. Right now it is difficult to monetize because it has to be done so differently with applications.
Comment by Andrew — November 3, 2007 @ 1:01 pm
Hey Nick
If you look through the main CSS file on Facebook, it looks like they've pushed in some styles for 'Social Ads'. You could take these styles and apply them to your own HTML to see how the ads would look, if you were so inclined…
Comment by Neil — November 4, 2007 @ 2:07 am
I would say no – but yes at the same time. I think the future of the web is much bigger than Facebook even though it is a specific platform with some great momentum.
Comment by FaceWeek.com — November 4, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
I would say no – but yes at the same time. I think the future of the web is much bigger than Facebook even though it is a specific platform with some great momentum.
Comment by FaceWeek.com — November 5, 2007 @ 12:32 am
[...] Nick O’Neill : Is Facebook Over-Hyped? Posted on November 5, 2007 by faceweek Nick O’Neill asks the question “is Facebook Over-Hyped?” [...]
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