What does more restricted space for applications means? Facebook hopes that it translates to better apps. In a blog post last Friday alerting developers of the upcoming changes, Facebook encouraged "application developers to focus on building applications that facilitate communication, generate meaningful activity, and increase users' trust," noting that any applications that "don't provide value and meaning for users" would face "challenges" under the new profile layout.

We noted last month that Facebook applications may have peaked in popularity and that a lot of people are beginning to feel "app fatigue." We suggested then that the solution for developers to overcome app fatigue, and to overcome stricter rules being imposed by Facebook about how applications can be spread via invites was simple: make better applications.

Facebook's looming profile design changes seem to be aimed squarely at the large number of apps that have been developed for its platform that don't add much utility. Once upon a time, people flocked to Facebook in large part because it had a cleaner design than rival social networks. But the launch of the Platform last May started Facebook down the road toward cluttered profiles like this one. Clearly, the social network is attempting to push people toward trimming down their use of applications that provide little utility, and rather focusing on applications that offer "meaningful activity," as they phrase it.

This is a long term strategy for Facebook. In the near term, getting people to stop using silly apps (or at least place less emphasis on them and use them less) means fewer page views and less ad inventory. But in the long term, getting developers to create more apps that have real utility for people, will get more people to rely on Facebook for more of their daily activity -- which furthers the goal of building the Facebook platform into a web operating system.

It is, however, important to take these changes with a grain of salt. What Facebook is showing off now is early in the design process and is not set to drop until Spring, so changes are certainly possible. The social network is inviting users to participate in the design process by giving feedback on iterations of the new profile design.

What do you think of Facebook's planned tabbed profiles? Will it result in better apps? Will diminish the clutter that has begun to take hold of many Facebook profiles? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

What happened? Well, for one, the Facebook platform happened. The Facebook platform allowed application developers to flood the site with applications, both useful and not (by many accounts, mostly not), and because of the way it is set up, app developers were able to encourage, and sometimes force or trick, users into sending out mass invites, notifications, or new feed announcements about often times trivial matters. This increased the noise on the Facebook network ten fold, and decreased the enjoyment of the social networks for some people.

Users, though, are beginning to push back. In just over a month, more than 65,000 people have joined the No, I will NOT invite 20 friends just to add your application! group, which has spun off an ancillary group that catalogues the applications that require users to invite friends before even using the app. And over 4,200 people have signed a petition calling on Facebook to step in and stop developers from using the "forced invite" tactic to grow their apps virally.

Further, blogger Alex Saunders points to recent statistics from Adonomics that indicate that the top Facebook apps have recently seen significant dips in the number of active users. "All of the top 10 leaderboard applications have seen substantial drops in daily users since peaking in November and December," writes Saunders. The chart below is from his site:

	Peak	Today
Funwall	5800	2500
Superwall	4800	1800
Top Friends	2900	2200
Likeness	821	181
Super poke	1500	500
Movies	814	500
Compare People	1000	471
iLike	941	372
Causes	469	110
Superlatives	320	110
	All figures in 1,000s

It is important to note that not all (if any) of these applications employ forced invites or tricky user invite schemes. Nonetheless, the drop in active users is telling, and is perhaps indicative of a Facebook populace that is beginning to get fed up with application noise or is getting tired of applications in general. It is certainly possible that the novelty has begun to wear off, and users are no longer interested in trying every hot new app under the sun, and have grown weary of some of the apps they were once so fond of.

One of the most annoying apps on Facebook -- at least in my opinion -- "Pirates vs. Ninjas," is way down off its November peak as well, according to Adonomics. What would make an app slide from over 165,000 daily users to 24,000 in just a couple of months? It's hard to say, but perhaps users have begun to grow tired of noveltly apps that don't do much else except spam their friends with invites to join the application.

App Fatigue: A Good Thing?

I wrote earlier that users suffering from app fatigue and pushing back against apps that employ sneaky invite schemes to grow is a good thing, and I think it probably is. Assuming Facebook steps in and imposes stricter invite rules -- which they should, applications will need to find different ways to spread virally. If people are simultaneously beginning to suffer from app fatigue (or app apathy -- appathy?), there is really only one sure fire way to get apps to spread virally: make better applications!

There are now 15,422 apps on the Facebook platform -- how many of them are truly useful? Anecdotal evidence would suggest that the novelty has worn off and users are finally starting to demand more of the applications they install. As Alex Saunders writes, "Developers of Facebook applications, however, have reached a watershed that demands a focus on delivering utility and value rather than thinly disguised advertising vehicles."

What do you think? Are you suffering from Facebook app fatigue? Do you think Facebook should step in and tighten invite rules for developers? Sound off in the comments below.