Sick of Facebook application overload? Feeling like you're on Myspace all over again? The Facebook team has heard your cries and announced tonight that they will soon release a new service that allows users to move all but their favorite apps to an "extended profile" section.
I think a lot of users are going to appreciate this. I'm not so sure about app developers.
]]>Rodney Rumford writes at FB app review blog FaceReviews that this will make the app developers' world a whole lot more competitive, since many apps spread largely through discovery by one friend on the profile page of another. It was via Rodney that I found this news.
So app developers are unlikely to be happy about this. Perhaps demotion of your app is better than having it be deleted?
Time to Throw a Party?
I don't think Rodney's concern will be at the top of users' minds, though. How will they (we) feel? As we read in our recent interview with an early Facebook user, which we think is pretty typical - there's a real backlash against app-overload, at least among long-time users. For some it's a backlash against Facebook apps at all!
On the other hand, many new users may appreciate the apps on the Facebook platform. Apps being hidden will presumably hinder our ability to stumble onto cool new ones. (Like this new near-Dodgeball integration into Facebook, for example.) If you, dear reader, weren't interested in finding cool new apps on the web - you probably wouldn't be reading this blog.
Maybe that's beside the point when it comes to Facebook apps though. They can be pretty annoying. I wonder how many people will move apps but still keep them and how many people will take this opportunity to delete them. I also wonder if few people will take advantage of the new "profile cleaner" and if in fact all of us just pile up detritus on these sites until we can't stand the load, we freak-out and leave.
Either way, I thought you'd appreciate reading about a way to hide Facebook apps - if only on principle!
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