Facebook Extends Platform to the Web

I surely did not see this coming anytime soon but Facebook just released their JavaScript client library than enables developers to extend their applications to their own websites. Rather than building your applications strictly within Facebook you can now extend the full functionality of the platform to your own website and leverage Facebook as the tool for managing members and their relationships. Somehow nobody has seemed to take note of this significant step.

Want to build your own social gaming platform that resides on your own website but leverages the power of users’ Facebook relationships? Now you can! There had previously been applications that could leverage the Facebook API prior to the launch of the platform but there are some significant differences now versus before. The first significant difference is the broader access to Facebook’s core features that the platform provides.

The second difference is that Facebook has now implemented the ability to leverage cookies to access a user’s data even when they are not at your application. Since this just launched last night, I have yet to see any applications (or websites) take advantage of this new feature. This is a huge step in Facebook extending their platform beyond the Facebook.com domain and letting people leverage the power of the “social graph” (I hate to use that phrase in this context but oh well).

Update
Debate has surfaced as to whether or not new functionality is being offered. In essence this is just the client facing version of what you could already accomplish via an iFrame on the platform. I would argue that what’s significant here is that Facebook has publicly released something that is intended to extend the platform to the outside. See Dan Farber’s post for more. The public is now aware of the possibilities to leverage Facebook outside of the main site and that is big news.

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94336 CommentsFacebook+Extends+Platform+to+the+Web2008-01-26+15%3A55%3A42Nick+O%27Neill »

Ohhh… so facebook's going to become the entire social backbone to the internet instead of being a standalone website.I was wondering…

Comment by Jonathan Kleiman — January 26, 2008 @ 6:02 am
Ohhh… so facebook's going to become the entire social backbone to the internet instead of being a standalone website.

I was wondering…

Comment by Jonathan Kleiman — January 26, 2008 @ 7:02 am
"There had previously been applications that could leverage the Facebook API prior to the launch of the platform but there are some significant differences now versus before."Sorry Nick, but I'm still not seeing how this is different… the only difference I see is that the client library lets a developer use just JavaScript to interact with Facebook rather than relying on a server-side language (e.g. PHP, Python, etc.) to interact with Facebook. This would make it easier for outside sites that rely heavily on Ajax to interact with Facebook, as well as help developers who are only familiar with client-side languages. But I don't think it's that big of a change… in fact, I think people have been overlooking the outside API access which has been in place for some time.What "broader access to Facebook's core features" does this provide? As far as I can tell, the library only makes API calls… which is exactly what outside web sites have been able to do (via server-side languages) since the API launched. Also, I'm not sure what you mean about leveraging cookies… once again, outside web sites have long been able to request a Facebook login and access data – for an example, see moochspot.com.

Comment by Joey Tyson — January 26, 2008 @ 10:18 am
Hi Nick I'm glad my radar picked up your post.This will be even bigger than f8 (opening up the facebook app API).Where can we get more info on the cookie feature?

Comment by Peter Koning — January 26, 2008 @ 10:19 am
"There had previously been applications that could leverage the Facebook API prior to the launch of the platform but there are some significant differences now versus before."

Sorry Nick, but I'm still not seeing how this is different… the only difference I see is that the client library lets a developer use just JavaScript to interact with Facebook rather than relying on a server-side language (e.g. PHP, Python, etc.) to interact with Facebook. This would make it easier for outside sites that rely heavily on Ajax to interact with Facebook, as well as help developers who are only familiar with client-side languages. But I don't think it's that big of a change… in fact, I think people have been overlooking the outside API access which has been in place for some time.

What "broader access to Facebook's core features" does this provide? As far as I can tell, the library only makes API calls… which is exactly what outside web sites have been able to do (via server-side languages) since the API launched. Also, I'm not sure what you mean about leveraging cookies… once again, outside web sites have long been able to request a Facebook login and access data – for an example, see moochspot.com.

Comment by Joey Tyson — January 26, 2008 @ 11:18 am
Hi Nick I'm glad my radar picked up your post.

This will be even bigger than f8 (opening up the facebook app API).

Where can we get more info on the cookie feature?

Comment by Peter Koning — January 26, 2008 @ 11:19 am
Yeah, this really isn't that big of a deal since it requires users to be registered on Facebook. Maybe if they had added support for OpenID too.

Comment by Zuckerborg — January 26, 2008 @ 12:38 pm
Moochspot is pretty cool example. It even works without having to add Moochspot as an application on FB. Question – doesn't it violate the FB Storable Information rules that you cannot store relations between IDs? That is, I add my FB friends to my piggybank so the piggybank is essentially storing that friend relationship.

Comment by Eric P — January 26, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
[...] O’Neill of AllFacebook is reporting today that, without much fanfare, Facebook integrated their platform with their API. What does this mean to you and me? It seems that your favorite applications could possibly start [...]

Pingback by Facebook Platform Spreading Out To The Web — January 26, 2008 @ 2:06 pm
Yeah, this really isn’t that big of a deal since it requires users to be registered on Facebook. Maybe if they had added support for OpenID too.

Comment by Zuckerborg — January 26, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
Certainly very interesting…

Comment by 113.com — January 26, 2008 @ 6:27 pm
Moochspot is pretty cool example. It even works without having to add Moochspot as an application on FB. Question – doesn’t it violate the FB Storable Information rules that you cannot store relations between IDs? That is, I add my FB friends to my piggybank so the piggybank is essentially storing that friend relationship.

Comment by Eric P — January 26, 2008 @ 6:36 pm
"The second difference is that Facebook has now implemented the ability to leverage cookies to access a userâ€™s data even when they are not at your application."Hmmm, I wonder if this will open up similar privacy issues as Beacon did.

Comment by p-air — January 26, 2008 @ 9:57 pm
Yep, I don't see how this "enables developers to extend their applications to their own websites" any more than the existing API did.All it is is a method for calling the API from JavaScript without the need to have your secret key embedded in your page.

Comment by Luke Noel-Storr — January 26, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
If I understand you Nick than you are telling us that we can now build our own website and allow users to give their facebook id so that we can fetch their information from facebook with new FB library and this can be done with javascript not with server side language like php. Is that what you are trying to say? I m more interested if you give us some sort of live example so we can understand your points in a better way:)

Comment by Rizwan — January 26, 2008 @ 10:36 pm
"The second difference is that Facebook has now implemented the ability to leverage cookies to access a userâ€™s data even when they are not at your application."

Hmmm, I wonder if this will open up similar privacy issues as Beacon did.

Comment by p-air — January 26, 2008 @ 10:57 pm
Yep, I don't see how this "enables developers to extend their applications to their own websites" any more than the existing API did.

All it is is a method for calling the API from JavaScript without the need to have your secret key embedded in your page.

Comment by Luke Noel-Storr — January 26, 2008 @ 11:04 pm
[...] ThreeÂ important things were noted by Nick O’Neill on his unofficial Facebook blog: [...]

Pingback by Facebook User-Data Gathering Goes Viral | Soshable | Social Media Blog — January 26, 2008 @ 10:09 pm
Certainly very interesting…

Comment by 113.com — January 26, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
[...] has now made it even easier for developers to create Facebook apps and widgets that will run just about anywhere on the Web. According to the description at ZDNet, developers have been able to get Facebook [...]

Pingback by Facebook wants to be the Web OS - - mathewingram.com/work — January 27, 2008 @ 12:12 am
If I understand you Nick than you are telling us that we can now build our own website and allow users to give their facebook id so that we can fetch their information from facebook with new FB library and this can be done with javascript not with server side language like php. Is that what you are trying to say? I m more interested if you give us some sort of live example so we can understand your points in a better way:)

Comment by Rizwan — January 27, 2008 @ 2:36 am
[...] O’Neil at All Facebook writes: Want to build your own social gaming platform that resides on your own website but leverages the [...]

Pingback by Facebook Apps On Any Website: Clever Move — January 27, 2008 @ 2:48 am
[...] O’Neil at All Facebook writes: Want to build your own social gaming platform that resides on your own website but leverages the [...]

Pingback by Facebook Apps On Any Website: Clever Move — January 27, 2008 @ 3:10 am
[...] January 27, 2008 From allfacebook (via TechCrunch): Facebook just released their JavaScript client library than enables developers to extend their appli…. [...]

Pingback by Facebook Apps to Infest Web « Changing Way — January 27, 2008 @ 3:38 am
[...] Oâ€™Neil at All Facebook writes: Want to build your own social gaming platform that resides on your own website but leverages the [...]

Pingback by ifevernet blog » Blog Archive » Facebook Apps On Any Website — January 27, 2008 @ 4:30 am
[...] it strange that Facebook can do something so smart (releasing a JavaScript client so you can host FB application on other Web sites) yet stumble so badly with a key strategic [...]

Pingback by Facebook’s Strategic Volatility | Mark Evans — January 27, 2008 @ 6:27 am
[...] espandibile. Una sorta di nuovo sistema operativo, online, diffuso e condiviso.Nick O’Neill scrive: Rather than building your applications strictly within Facebook you can now extend the full [...]

Pingback by Facebook apre le applicazioni a siti Web esterni « GeekMarketing — January 27, 2008 @ 7:02 am
[...] My friend Nick at AllFacebook is breaking some news that Facebook is opening it’s platform to …. If that’s true, that would be meaningful and very useful to us boring bloggers. [...]

Pingback by Howard Lindzon » Facebook Cleanup Possible and a Smart 'Open Web' Move — January 27, 2008 @ 7:14 am
[...] its domain, which I understand was possible (if more difficult) before this release anyway. Blogger Nick Oâ€™Neill is ebullient about the social connections to be made across the web, if you place these [...]

Pingback by Facebook Drops Another Hurdle | Strategist.org.uk — January 27, 2008 @ 9:05 am
[...] Facebook anunciÃ³ este viernes, una nueva JavaScript client library, que permitirÃ¡ que las aplicaciones de Facebook se puedan ver en cualquier web. [...]

Pingback by Facebook extiende su plataforma a la web : — January 27, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
[...] The release of this library caused a fair amount of buzz over the weekend from folks including Nick O’Neill, Dare Obasanjo, Jeremiah Owyang, Duncan Riley, and Search Engine [...]

Pingback by Facebook Extends Their Platform — January 27, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
Everyone is saying "what's the advantage here"?. Maybe these people havent experienced the limitations a facebook application developer has within their canvas pages. You have some 400 odd pixels width to work with, and, nested branding.Ive been elaborating for a week now and specifically just today (before hearing a word about any of this) as to how Facebook is becoming a gaming framework.http://www.trumptheniche.com/2008/01/27/online-…..

Comment by Marc — January 27, 2008 @ 9:03 pm
Everyone is saying "what's the advantage here"?. Maybe these people havent experienced the limitations a facebook application developer has within their canvas pages. You have some 400 odd pixels width to work with, and, nested branding.

Ive been elaborating for a week now and specifically just today (before hearing a word about any of this) as to how Facebook is becoming a gaming framework.

http://www.trumptheniche.com/2008/01/27/online-ga...

Comment by Marc — January 27, 2008 @ 10:03 pm
Thanks for sharing.Loganhttp://thenewsempire.com

Comment by nulls101 — October 15, 2008 @ 10:37 am
Yep, good stuff!

Comment by Tony Exponentia — July 23, 2009 @ 11:44 am
its really interesting to hear that new advancement coming in facebook . hey thanks for apprising of this wonderful information.

Comment by facebook fans — June 13, 2011 @ 6:54 am

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Ohhh… so facebook's going to become the entire social backbone to the internet instead of being a standalone website.I was wondering…

Comment by Jonathan Kleiman — January 26, 2008 @ 6:02 am

Ohhh… so facebook's going to become the entire social backbone to the internet instead of being a standalone website.

I was wondering…

Comment by Jonathan Kleiman — January 26, 2008 @ 7:02 am

"There had previously been applications that could leverage the Facebook API prior to the launch of the platform but there are some significant differences now versus before."Sorry Nick, but I'm still not seeing how this is different… the only difference I see is that the client library lets a developer use just JavaScript to interact with Facebook rather than relying on a server-side language (e.g. PHP, Python, etc.) to interact with Facebook. This would make it easier for outside sites that rely heavily on Ajax to interact with Facebook, as well as help developers who are only familiar with client-side languages. But I don't think it's that big of a change… in fact, I think people have been overlooking the outside API access which has been in place for some time.What "broader access to Facebook's core features" does this provide? As far as I can tell, the library only makes API calls… which is exactly what outside web sites have been able to do (via server-side languages) since the API launched. Also, I'm not sure what you mean about leveraging cookies… once again, outside web sites have long been able to request a Facebook login and access data – for an example, see moochspot.com.

Comment by Joey Tyson — January 26, 2008 @ 10:18 am

Hi Nick I'm glad my radar picked up your post.This will be even bigger than f8 (opening up the facebook app API).Where can we get more info on the cookie feature?

Comment by Peter Koning — January 26, 2008 @ 10:19 am

"There had previously been applications that could leverage the Facebook API prior to the launch of the platform but there are some significant differences now versus before."

Sorry Nick, but I'm still not seeing how this is different… the only difference I see is that the client library lets a developer use just JavaScript to interact with Facebook rather than relying on a server-side language (e.g. PHP, Python, etc.) to interact with Facebook. This would make it easier for outside sites that rely heavily on Ajax to interact with Facebook, as well as help developers who are only familiar with client-side languages. But I don't think it's that big of a change… in fact, I think people have been overlooking the outside API access which has been in place for some time.

What "broader access to Facebook's core features" does this provide? As far as I can tell, the library only makes API calls… which is exactly what outside web sites have been able to do (via server-side languages) since the API launched. Also, I'm not sure what you mean about leveraging cookies… once again, outside web sites have long been able to request a Facebook login and access data – for an example, see moochspot.com.

Comment by Joey Tyson — January 26, 2008 @ 11:18 am

Hi Nick I'm glad my radar picked up your post.

This will be even bigger than f8 (opening up the facebook app API).

Where can we get more info on the cookie feature?

Comment by Peter Koning — January 26, 2008 @ 11:19 am

Yeah, this really isn't that big of a deal since it requires users to be registered on Facebook. Maybe if they had added support for OpenID too.

Comment by Zuckerborg — January 26, 2008 @ 12:38 pm

Moochspot is pretty cool example. It even works without having to add Moochspot as an application on FB. Question – doesn't it violate the FB Storable Information rules that you cannot store relations between IDs? That is, I add my FB friends to my piggybank so the piggybank is essentially storing that friend relationship.

Comment by Eric P — January 26, 2008 @ 2:36 pm

[...] O’Neill of AllFacebook is reporting today that, without much fanfare, Facebook integrated their platform with their API. What does this mean to you and me? It seems that your favorite applications could possibly start [...]

Pingback by Facebook Platform Spreading Out To The Web — January 26, 2008 @ 2:06 pm

Yeah, this really isn’t that big of a deal since it requires users to be registered on Facebook. Maybe if they had added support for OpenID too.

Comment by Zuckerborg — January 26, 2008 @ 4:38 pm

Certainly very interesting…

Comment by 113.com — January 26, 2008 @ 6:27 pm

Moochspot is pretty cool example. It even works without having to add Moochspot as an application on FB. Question – doesn’t it violate the FB Storable Information rules that you cannot store relations between IDs? That is, I add my FB friends to my piggybank so the piggybank is essentially storing that friend relationship.

Comment by Eric P — January 26, 2008 @ 6:36 pm

"The second difference is that Facebook has now implemented the ability to leverage cookies to access a userâ€™s data even when they are not at your application."Hmmm, I wonder if this will open up similar privacy issues as Beacon did.

Comment by p-air — January 26, 2008 @ 9:57 pm

Yep, I don't see how this "enables developers to extend their applications to their own websites" any more than the existing API did.All it is is a method for calling the API from JavaScript without the need to have your secret key embedded in your page.

Comment by Luke Noel-Storr — January 26, 2008 @ 10:04 pm

If I understand you Nick than you are telling us that we can now build our own website and allow users to give their facebook id so that we can fetch their information from facebook with new FB library and this can be done with javascript not with server side language like php. Is that what you are trying to say? I m more interested if you give us some sort of live example so we can understand your points in a better way:)

Comment by Rizwan — January 26, 2008 @ 10:36 pm

"The second difference is that Facebook has now implemented the ability to leverage cookies to access a userâ€™s data even when they are not at your application."

Hmmm, I wonder if this will open up similar privacy issues as Beacon did.

Comment by p-air — January 26, 2008 @ 10:57 pm

Yep, I don't see how this "enables developers to extend their applications to their own websites" any more than the existing API did.

All it is is a method for calling the API from JavaScript without the need to have your secret key embedded in your page.

Comment by Luke Noel-Storr — January 26, 2008 @ 11:04 pm

[...] ThreeÂ important things were noted by Nick O’Neill on his unofficial Facebook blog: [...]

Pingback by Facebook User-Data Gathering Goes Viral | Soshable | Social Media Blog — January 26, 2008 @ 10:09 pm

Comment by 113.com — January 26, 2008 @ 10:27 pm

[...] has now made it even easier for developers to create Facebook apps and widgets that will run just about anywhere on the Web. According to the description at ZDNet, developers have been able to get Facebook [...]

Pingback by Facebook wants to be the Web OS - - mathewingram.com/work — January 27, 2008 @ 12:12 am

Comment by Rizwan — January 27, 2008 @ 2:36 am

[...] O’Neil at All Facebook writes: Want to build your own social gaming platform that resides on your own website but leverages the [...]

Pingback by Facebook Apps On Any Website: Clever Move — January 27, 2008 @ 2:48 am

Pingback by Facebook Apps On Any Website: Clever Move — January 27, 2008 @ 3:10 am

[...] January 27, 2008 From allfacebook (via TechCrunch): Facebook just released their JavaScript client library than enables developers to extend their appli…. [...]

Pingback by Facebook Apps to Infest Web « Changing Way — January 27, 2008 @ 3:38 am

[...] Oâ€™Neil at All Facebook writes: Want to build your own social gaming platform that resides on your own website but leverages the [...]

Pingback by ifevernet blog » Blog Archive » Facebook Apps On Any Website — January 27, 2008 @ 4:30 am

[...] it strange that Facebook can do something so smart (releasing a JavaScript client so you can host FB application on other Web sites) yet stumble so badly with a key strategic [...]

Pingback by Facebook’s Strategic Volatility | Mark Evans — January 27, 2008 @ 6:27 am

[...] espandibile. Una sorta di nuovo sistema operativo, online, diffuso e condiviso.Nick O’Neill scrive: Rather than building your applications strictly within Facebook you can now extend the full [...]

Pingback by Facebook apre le applicazioni a siti Web esterni « GeekMarketing — January 27, 2008 @ 7:02 am

[...] My friend Nick at AllFacebook is breaking some news that Facebook is opening it’s platform to …. If that’s true, that would be meaningful and very useful to us boring bloggers. [...]

Pingback by Howard Lindzon » Facebook Cleanup Possible and a Smart 'Open Web' Move — January 27, 2008 @ 7:14 am

[...] its domain, which I understand was possible (if more difficult) before this release anyway. Blogger Nick Oâ€™Neill is ebullient about the social connections to be made across the web, if you place these [...]

Pingback by Facebook Drops Another Hurdle | Strategist.org.uk — January 27, 2008 @ 9:05 am

[...] Facebook anunciÃ³ este viernes, una nueva JavaScript client library, que permitirÃ¡ que las aplicaciones de Facebook se puedan ver en cualquier web. [...]

Pingback by Facebook extiende su plataforma a la web : — January 27, 2008 @ 1:38 pm

[...] The release of this library caused a fair amount of buzz over the weekend from folks including Nick O’Neill, Dare Obasanjo, Jeremiah Owyang, Duncan Riley, and Search Engine [...]

Pingback by Facebook Extends Their Platform — January 27, 2008 @ 7:51 pm

Everyone is saying "what's the advantage here"?. Maybe these people havent experienced the limitations a facebook application developer has within their canvas pages. You have some 400 odd pixels width to work with, and, nested branding.Ive been elaborating for a week now and specifically just today (before hearing a word about any of this) as to how Facebook is becoming a gaming framework.http://www.trumptheniche.com/2008/01/27/online-…..

Comment by Marc — January 27, 2008 @ 9:03 pm

Ive been elaborating for a week now and specifically just today (before hearing a word about any of this) as to how Facebook is becoming a gaming framework.

http://www.trumptheniche.com/2008/01/27/online-ga...

Comment by Marc — January 27, 2008 @ 10:03 pm

Thanks for sharing.Loganhttp://thenewsempire.com

Comment by nulls101 — October 15, 2008 @ 10:37 am

Yep, good stuff!

Comment by Tony Exponentia — July 23, 2009 @ 11:44 am

its really interesting to hear that new advancement coming in facebook . hey thanks for apprising of this wonderful information.

Comment by facebook fans — June 13, 2011 @ 6:54 am

Facebook Extends Platform to the Web

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