As we wrote over the weekend, Facebook developers will be able to start asking users for their email address starting this evening. While we’ve already outlined the full details for developers, Facebook has a blog post with the latest information about the new functionality going live tonight. There isn’t much new information that Facebook published, however they did emphasize how important email is to many developers.
LivingSocial, for example, has driven 10 percent of their traffic via email notifications. Click through rates on LivingSocial’s emails have gone as high as 12 percent which is extremely high as anyone who has done email marketing knows. We consider it somewhat strange that Facebook is trying to move a lot of notifications to email, as the company has invested a decent amount of time in iterating on their notification system (most recently designing a counter system).
While most developers are concerned about the deprecation of notifications, there will be 30 days until the existing Facebook notification system is deprecated. Between now and then, Facebook will be testing the new counter system and new homepage design. The new counter system is already in beta mode and can be tested by developers. While the shift to the new system may negatively impact some applications, Facebook’s timeframe should enable most application developers to make a smooth transition.
If you want to learn more about how user email addresses will be integrated with applications, read this article. Facebook has a number of user protections in place under the new system, however email addresses are email addresses and once developers have them, there’s always a risk for spam. Do you welcome the new system or do you think this is going to result in a wave of spam problems?
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no no no no no. if i want an email notification for a facebook application, put it in my FACEBOOK inbox. jeesh, fb is starting to feel like big brother will all these intertwining arms all over the net. first google searches & making all our info/pictures/words not only public and searchable, but now they want our email information too? riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Comment by Facebook User — January 20, 2010 @ 11:07 am
not happy about the new spam i'll be receiving.
Comment by Gina — January 20, 2010 @ 11:58 am
facebook need to stay in facebook .. I don't want my email to be involved
Comment by Facebook User — January 20, 2010 @ 2:51 pm
This does not sound good if you want to grow a FAN Base.
Comment by Mike Lee — January 20, 2010 @ 3:02 pm
time to list fb as SPAM in my settings :/
Comment by Robyn B. Holmes — January 20, 2010 @ 3:33 pm
I think they should figure out a notification system with optional e-mail notification. Users should choose from which shource they would like to recieve e-mail notification. Developers should then hook in on this notification system, so there can always be control of a "certified" party like Facebook. I think they make a big mistake here.
Comment by Bart Jeukendrup — January 20, 2010 @ 11:21 pm
The only positive I can see coming out of this is maybe people will slow down with the application activity. Or maybe they won't, some are too addicted to the latest cutest viral app to come along to worry about giving their email in order to use it.
The FB search index private info thing is just a scary chain letter http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/indexing….
but having said that, I don't like where FB is going by slowly trying to make everyone go public. If you accept their new privacy settings, you have to reset your old privacy settings one at a time to get them back the way they were.
Comment by Sarah — January 21, 2010 @ 6:50 am
Not happy because I wonder what's next but since I use what I like to think of as a throwaway email address (ie: google/yahoo email)for Facebook, I'm not too worried. I go there once in a while and do a massive delete without reading a thing.
Comment by lily — January 21, 2010 @ 4:30 pm
I'm really really really happy . This will make FB users honest to themselves and transparent to their friends and readers. Congratulation to Facebook Management.
Comment by Idris Harris — February 6, 2011 @ 11:21 pm