When Facebook launched their platform in 2007 I remember the drama as Facebook developers raced to snap up servers. Developers could barely handle the onslaught of new users, which for iLike, were coming in at over 2,800 users per hour. It was a gold rush and hundreds if not thousands of developers found instant riches. Many of those top developers still are among the top developers today.
When Facebook launched Connect over one month ago the response was much more quiet. Many developers sat on the sidelines while they analyzed the effects of the new service. While sites like Gawker (this site included) were touting significant increases in user engagement, no company experienced the dramatic growth in their user base as initially experienced by applications launched on the first version of the platform.
Facebook’s Accidental Success
When Facebook launched their platform in May of 2007, they had no idea how successful it would be (this is not to understate the genius of the concept but nobody knew how big it would be). It turned out to be a phenomenon which attracted hundreds of thousands of developers. Much of the initial success can be attributed to Facebook’s loose invite policies at the time and their non-restrictive application policies. Many of the top applications experienced massive success never experienced on any platform prior to this one.
Venture capitalists jumped at the opportunity to fund new companies that had successful applications even as many searched for the most effective monetization route. The money didn’t matter at first because the opportunity at hand was clearly too good to pass up. I would suggest that the popularity of the platform in the media peaked toward the end of 2007 as one conference after the other popped up to cover the exploding industry around Facebook applications.
Nobody had yet to figure out an effective business model but that really didn’t matter because we were all flying on the coattails of Facebook’s success which has continued to surge through today. The buzz quieted down as the platform matured over 2008 and the highly controversial site redesign was launched. Some claimed that the platform was dead, but nobody knew what to expect of Facebook Connect.
Connect Launches In A Restrictive Environment
When you launch support for Facebook Connect, don’t expect the masses to flock to your site. Instead, the service tends to increase the level of engagement from existing users. While this effect is an incredible one, don’t expect to hear of dramatic increases in traffic to websites resulting from new implementations of Facebook Connect. This was the exact reason that developers flocked to the Facebook platform in the first place though.
While increased engagement is enough of an incentive for many developer to implement Connect, many will find the hurdle to installing Connect greater than the incentive for completing integration. While Connect has been spreading, there simply isn’t the same type of widespread support that we witnessed when the Facebook platform first launched.
Unclear Terms Makes Business Risky
Another disincentive for new websites to implement Facebook Connect is the lack of clarity in Facebook’s terms of service for new implementations of Connect. One way to find out if what you are doing is legitimate under Facebook’s terms of service is to ask about it in the developer forum. Developers regularly ask about terms of service issues and they typically get a quick response from Facebook.
As I’ve said before though, Facebook’s fourth party widget policy isn’t exactly clear as they appear to make exceptions on a case by case basis. Developers are still awaiting clarification but if you are looking to release a widget that is completely dependent on Facebook Connect for user verification, you may want to proceed with caution.
Facebook rarely shuts down applications for terms violations but last night they shut down Meebo for their implementation of Facebook chat. While the service didn’t initially implement Facebook Connect, the new version will. The exciting part about this is that chat could soon come to the Facebook API.
Conclusion
While Facebook Connect presents a great opportunity for external websites, the incentives are nowhere near as powerful as those provided when the Facebook platform first launched. While the initial incentives were partially accidental, there’s no doubt that the virality of the Facebook platform when it first launched in 2007 was the most significant driver of new development on the site. Facebook may want to consider introducing similar incentives even if only on a temporary basis for the sole purpose of driving rapid adoption.
Are you implementing Facebook Connect or have you already? What incentives helped you to make your decision to do so?
Independent developers weren't carefully analyzing Connect. They were passing on it because it didn't fit their needs. The platform is a garden of high virality and free promotion. Connect is a vehicle for increased engagement with a small amount of social promotion. They are very different products, even if they run on the same foundation. Sites like Digg and WordPress.com can make good use of Connect, and that's fine, and for them it's just another tool for reaching users. For developers who have small games and social applications, it doesn't matter if you build it within the Facebook canvas or outside of Facebook, because you don't need your own site to "connect" with. So despite what the media will tell you, people should view the platform and Connect as separate, different products, which serve different purposes, court different customers, and solve different problems.
Comment by Montoya — January 9, 2009 @ 6:35 am
My problems with facebook currently are:
Who ARE the developers? Is it safe to use applications?
What if the application servers are based in China, Russia, or somewhere else unsavoury where our details are being harvested…
Considering that last years earnings were allegedly 150 million dollars US, and that It has been valued at between 3 and as much as 15 billion dollars that is a big difference…
What other than the ads they use will they sell? – User profiles and related information. Smarter and smarter algorithms will cyber-stalk people and specifically target them. I don't like the idea that they left their apllication development so loose in the first place, with over 55,000 applications currently. They claim to be monitoring them all, but I don't see how this is even really possible with their satff levels, and how much users and scaling issues they have.
They have had some great ideas, but at the end of the day, I hope that it is a fad. OpenID for the Win!
RE: Unclear terms for Facebook connect… This is how Facebook seems to be for me, sneaky and hypocritical. They even have a twitter user @facebook… Why? Isn't Facebook good enough, so they need to use twitter? The irony…
Anyway, I personally find FaceBook to be very invasive of people's privacy, don't seem to give a hoot about repercussions of NOT being able to be anonymous or use nicknames etc.
The applications other people use leech MY information without my permission… There is nothing I can do to stop this, apart from leaving. MySpace application security settings are much more security conscious. The whole thing smells a bit PHISHY to me… And in my opinion APPLICATIONS=PHISH. I mean really, there has to be some payload for most developers doesn't there?
GIFT APPLICATION:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_xTTCW_SdLf4/SUlZFko4lzI...
Want to know what users REALLY think of the applications? See above pic.
Comment by Liam Vickery — January 9, 2009 @ 6:41 am
Facebook Chat API sounds promising.
Comment by Zafarali Ahmed — January 9, 2009 @ 7:36 am