Comments for Facebook Opens Up: Lets Developers Access Status Updates, Notes, Links, and Videos

Facebook Opens Up: Lets Developers Access Status Updates, Notes, Links, and Videos

2009-02-07T02:54:23Z

Facebook announced a major update to its API tonight that will allow developers to read and post status updates, links, and notes to Facebook. In addtion, Facebook now also allows third-party developers to create applications that can upload videos directly to a user's account. The service already had an API for uploading and viewing photos.

]]> The company also announced that its users now share over 24 million links every month, and that more than 15 million of its users update their status every day.

Attacking Twitter?

As Nick O'Neill on the AllFacebook blog points out, this move can be seen as a direct attack against Twitter. The early success of Twitter, after all, was mostly based upon the availability of an API that allowed for the creation of a thriving ecosystem that went far beyond what Twitter's developers had originally envisioned.

Creating an Ecosystem

Looking at the announcement, Facebook clearly hopes that a similar ecosystem can develop around its new API. As an example, Facebook explains that it would now be very easy for a travel app to allow its users to create and share notes on Facebook with text, pictures, and videos.

Tearing Down the Wall

Facebook is slowly tearing down the wall around its silo and is starting to expose more of its data to the outside, which can only be a good thing. Just this week, Facebook also joined the OpenID Foundation. There are some legitimate questions about what this means for both OpenID and Facebook Connect, but it looks like Facebook is moving in the right direction.

Comment from kondigg on 2010-03-10

2010-03-10T09:05:54Z

Good to see FB trying to change a little with the times and 'chipping' a block or two off the walled garden. They have a tremendous opportunity to really enlighten mainstream users to some of the potential uses of social networking. However they still have a lot of work to do in terms of penetrating the professional & technical collaboration circles.

Comment from Erik on 2009-12-23

2009-12-23T13:53:01Z

Yeah, good article. Its funny because I recently purchased a book entitled 'is: The Phenomenon of the Facebook Status' were it presents an insight into everyday life in the 21st century through the medium of Facebook status updates, highlighting the joys and pressures of today's world, giving a 'warts 'n' all' look into what we have become, as a society.

Each individual status update listed within 'is' allows the watching world to look into the updating person's soul as they share their thoughts and feelings of the day in a manner that has never before existed, giving a glance of what the person is made of, if not the image they are attempting to portray!

It is one of my favourite books this year, and has been getting rave reviews online.

http://www.amazon.com/Phenomenon-Facebook-Patrick-Hamilton-Walsh/dp/1604942290

If you are reading this article then you will love this book.

Thank me later

Comment from nutpongza001 on 2009-11-29

2009-11-30T00:27:32Z

This is really a great idea I am surprised it's not in wider use already.

Comment from Cheap Facebook Developers on 2009-07-17

2009-07-17T11:10:59Z

Thats really an awesome news from facebook. Facebook already introducing new options for developers. and this is really great.

Comment from mirc on 2009-06-14

2009-06-14T16:57:26Z

As an example, Facebook explains that it would now be very easy for a travel app to allow its users to create and share notes on Facebook with text, pictures, and videos.

Comment from söve on 2009-02-24

2009-02-24T16:35:02Z

thanks.

Comment from Ane on 2009-02-19

2009-02-20T07:36:12Z

Hi, i know this is not the right place to say this, but i'm experiencing HUGELY annoying problems with Facebook at the moment! Since about a week ago, they launched some kind of wap site. Now, in the past, i have been able to use opera mini And my sony ericsson w850i to access the main Facebook site, add comments, And use my applications. Now all of a sudden, the site recognises my phone as a phone, And sends me straight to some mobile site where i am unable to even comment on status updates!! I cant even file complaints, as i am unable to click on anything! This is driving me insane as i am quite addicted to Facebook and i'm sure i'm not the only one out there who is experiencing this. I know the problem does not lie with opera mini, as they haven't sent out an upgrade in ages. This only started happening last week. Please please please fix this soon! I would so love to be able to access the main site through my phone again! Once again, i apologise for posting this here. I had nowhere else to go...

Comment from Phil Ashman on 2009-02-09

2009-02-09T08:06:23Z

As @Sherif & @Muhabbet allude to above, my gut feeling snapshot based on what I have seen is that there is a fundamental cultural difference between FB and Twitter/FF users. Most Twitter/FF users leave their profile open by default, whereas most FB users make their profile private forcing users to go through the friend process. In addition there is no way of receiving updates on users in FB unless you are a friend. On the other hand, in Twitter/FF it is as simple as clicking on Follow or Subscribe. I mostly use Twitter/FB for collaborating and keeping my pulse on technology and I've yet to hit a profile that has been marked private. FB on the other hand has been 99% private.

Comment from Alexander Kintis on 2009-02-08

2009-02-09T01:04:31Z

Great! More ways for people to indulge in their Facebook addiction

Comment from mIRC on 2009-02-08

2009-02-08T15:20:40Z

If Facebook were to open up their API so that anyone could access anyone's Status update - now Twitter vs Facebook begins! But they aren't.
________________________________

istanbul üniversty Muhabbet

Comment from Sherif on 2009-02-08

2009-02-08T11:03:43Z

If you have a look at the Status Update API, you will notice that you can only get the current users status Update, not everyone else.

So at first, you might think ah ha! They are 'attacking' Twitter - when you think about it, that's not the case.

If Facebook were to open up their API so that anyone could access anyone's Status update - now Twitter vs Facebook begins! But they aren't.

Comment from Igor Poltavskiy on 2009-02-06

2009-02-07T05:35:30Z

"Attacking Twitter": David and Goliath!

Comment from chris on 2009-02-06

2009-02-07T04:15:38Z

What sets twitter apart is its culture of users. They're what make twitter what it is. But on the other hand, Facebook has soooo many users that they're bound to establish a similar culture of status geeks. If that happens at anywhere near the rate of what twitter has experienced, they just might take over this space. Damn Twitter...sale immediately.