I have now reviewed hundreds of applications and looked at each one of the thousands of applications on Facebook. After speaking with my friend Justin Thorp last night we concluded that there has yet to be the true golden application. So what is a golden application?
A golden application is one that leverages Facebook’s social component to provide true value to the users that interact with it. At this point I am speaking of something that is not easy to create. It is ultimately the concept of building the next revolutionary product (like Facebook) within the Facebook platform. What are the chances that someone is working on this golden application? Extremely high.
In contrast to many of the existing applications that were built overnight by a college student in their dorm room, the revolutionary applications will require large development teams and take months to build. I know of a few that are in the works but the bottom line is that we have yet to cross the point at which robust applications are being featured on the Facebook platform.
I am currently working on one of those feature rich applications with a team and I can speak from experience, it takes a significant amount of time to build high quality, viral and sticky applications. While there are a number of applications that have stood out to me as exceptional none of them are quite revolutionary. Are there any applications that you have seen that you would qualify as revolutionary? If not, what applications come close?
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Do you know of a definitive list of Facebook Apps? How about a Facebook App directory?How about a Mybloglog.com App?
Comment by Adam Donkus — July 26, 2007 @ 7:46 am
Do you know of a definitive list of Facebook Apps? How about a Facebook App directory?
How about a Mybloglog.com App?
Comment by Adam Donkus — July 26, 2007 @ 8:46 am
The Flixster and Yahoo! Music Videos apps are pretty "golden" to me. They add plenty of value, and take advantage of many social features in Facebook.
Comment by Hashim — July 26, 2007 @ 8:55 am
Hi Adam,I use the Facebook application directory to view all the approved Facebook applications. There are also ones that haven't been approved so you have to scour the web to find others. It is almost impossible to track all approved and unapproved but you can get pretty darn close.There is an application similar to Mybloglog which is called "Trakzor" … have you seen it?
Comment by Nick O'Neill — July 26, 2007 @ 8:57 am
Hi Adam,
I use the Facebook application directory to view all the approved Facebook applications. There are also ones that haven't been approved so you have to scour the web to find others. It is almost impossible to track all approved and unapproved but you can get pretty darn close.
There is an application similar to Mybloglog which is called "Trakzor" … have you seen it?
Comment by Nick O'Neill — July 26, 2007 @ 9:57 am
The Flixster and Yahoo! Music Videos apps are pretty “golden” to me. They add plenty of value, and take advantage of many social features in Facebook.
Comment by Hashim — July 26, 2007 @ 12:55 pm
Nick,
Last weekend, Mesmo.TV launched a Facebook application (TV Shows & Videos) that Liz Gannes from NewTeeVee said is, "the most developed of any video-watching environment I’ve seen so far on that platform."
We leverage Facebook’s social component to allow users to see the TV shows, video podcasts and videos from YouTube and other sites that their friends are watching. You can also add your favorite TV shows and videos to your profile and compare your “video compatibility†with friends. We will also be adding many more features early next week.
Take a look and let us know what you think.
http://apps.facebook.com/mesmotv/
Comment by Davin Miyoshi — July 26, 2007 @ 7:20 pm
A "Golden App" is rather judgmental and based on opinion. I consider some of the apps I use golden. I've installed or used a lot of apps even if it was for a sec, yet none of them I keep unless they actually adds functionality/value on top of what facebook does as is. Like the most recent personal golden app for me is 'College Football.' I love the bracket and all that stuff facebook provide during college basketball season. I always wonder if anything like that can come to college football and so long and behold this app.
Other personal golden app; the official last.fm – nothing beats listening to a radio that plays songs you actually listened to before.
Comment by mojaam — July 26, 2007 @ 8:32 pm
A “Golden App” is rather judgmental and based on opinion. I consider some of the apps I use golden. I've installed or used a lot of apps even if it was for a sec, yet none of them I keep unless they actually adds functionality/value on top of what facebook does as is. Like the most recent personal golden app for me is 'College Football.' I love the bracket and all that stuff facebook provide during college basketball season. I always wonder if anything like that can come to college football and so long and behold this app.
Other personal golden app; the official last.fm – nothing beats listening to a radio that plays songs you actually listened to before.
Comment by mojaam — July 26, 2007 @ 11:32 pm
I think we'll definitely see stuff that leverages your social capital (your friends) to benefit both you and them. I don't see mybloglog being a good choice for this, for privacy reasons, and the fact that it might not work. but i can guarantee that we will see some very compelling apps that enhance the user experience and the utility of facebook immensely. everything you've seen so far has taken less than 2 months to build, so we'll see more complex stuff as time goes by.
Comment by Brian Breslin — July 27, 2007 @ 4:12 pm
I think we'll definitely see stuff that leverages your social capital (your friends) to benefit both you and them. I don't see mybloglog being a good choice for this, for privacy reasons, and the fact that it might not work.
but i can guarantee that we will see some very compelling apps that enhance the user experience and the utility of facebook immensely. everything you've seen so far has taken less than 2 months to build, so we'll see more complex stuff as time goes by.
Comment by Brian Breslin — July 27, 2007 @ 5:12 pm
[...] in July I discussed the idea of a golden application on Facebook. Just today, Kara Swisher posted a similar thought. Kara, who appears to spend a fair amount of [...]
Pingback by Does Facebook Needs That Golden App? - The Unofficial Facebook Blog — October 9, 2007 @ 5:17 pm
[...] in July I suggested that there would eventually be a golden application on Facebook. Since then, there have been a few that have come close but nothing has been ground [...]
Pingback by Will Facebook Ever Be Productive? - The Unofficial Facebook Blog — December 12, 2007 @ 12:11 pm
Maybe LivingSocial is that app, the numbers tend to suggest it.
Comment by Mark — April 16, 2009 @ 7:32 pm