This seems like a rather strange move by SpeedDate.com - after all, speed dating and playing Oregon Trail have very little in common. Oregon Trail currently has 11,248 active users, which doesn't make it one of the most popular Facebook apps, but it is surely going to be enough to get SpeedDate's Facebook application up and running. However, we assume that most users will be rather surprised to see a dating app instead of a game about wagons, hunting, and oxen.

Josh Lowensohn also points out that SpeedDate will provide users with opt-out instructions, but, besides maybe keeping a few thousand users, SpeedDate will most likely only get a lot of negative publicity out of this acquisition.

Note: There is also another Oregon Trail-like game on Facebook, Northwest Trail, which is far more popular and is not affected by this 'acquisition.'

Last week, Hasbro filed suit against Rajat and Jayant Agarwall, the brothers who created the app two years ago. The game, as you may know, doesn't just take inspiration from Scrabble, but rips it off entirely and transports it to the web...triple word scores and all.

On the one hand, the brothers should be congratulated for having the foresight to see how popular an online version of this game could be - it quickly rose to become one of the all-time favorite games on Facebook's social network with over 500,000 daily users. On the other, you have to wonder what other result the Agarwall brothers could have hoped for at this point.

Although Hasbro sent a takedown notice back in January to Rajat and Jayant Agarwall, they later tried to come to an agreement with the brothers over the rights to the game. In fact, Electronic Arts, RealNetworks, Mattel, and Hasbro - the four U.S. companies that each have some of the rights of Scrabble - came together to offer the brothers a large sum of money which would have allowed them to keep a version of the game up and running.

According to this New York Times article, Jayant Agarwalla said that he and his brother did not create Scrabulous to make money - they just wanted to play Scrabble on their computers. So why didn't they accept the big check then? The brothers decided to turn down the check, rumored to be around the $10 million mark; apparently, they were holding out for more money. How much more? A multiple of several times $10 million by some accounts. Even though the game, by all fair estimates, was probably only worth around $3-6 million, the brothers felt they deserved more.

Was This A Big Mistake?

While some are calling the Scrabulous shutdown a great blunder on Hasbro's part, we wonder what other solutions could the company have taken to protect their brand? Or is it time for companies to give up trying to protect their brand altogether and just learn how to better compete with those that counterfeit their copyright? This question is truly the basis for all the arguments surrounding the piracy issue - that is, whether it's worthwhile to go after pirates, thieves, and copyright-infringers, or whether it's better to simply let them be and consider it free advertising.

Facebook, which launched in February of 2004, began as a social network just for college students. The closed nature of the network became one of its biggest selling points. Here, students could plan their social schedules, create study groups, and yes, even post those embarrassing photos from last night's kegger without worrying that mom or dad might see.

But now, four years later, those same students are graduating and entering the job market. Cleaning up a Facebook profile - that is, removing those "sort of" friends and old acquaintances as well as ditching a slew of time-wasting applications is almost like a coming-of-age ritual now. As the college kids move into the real world, the social network needs to reflect their changing needs in order to stay relevant while still appealing to the next generation of users, too.

That's a fine line to walk, but Facebook is making a go of it. Although the network provides numerous privacy controls, that isn't really enough to make the network "safe for work." For the Gen Y workforce, getting the point across that their set of social media tools can be the new way to get things done, it helps when profiles aren't filled with pointless, time-wasting apps that don't just fill your screen but also spam you and your friends with their notifications.

Application Lockdown

The new profile page cleans up the applications by moving them into the "Boxes" tab, but what's more important is what's going on behind the scenes - application security. On the new Facebook, apps are now "try before you buy." That is, you can interact with the application before adding it, granting it access to your information, and deciding where to put it on your Facebook profile.

Also, app makers will no longer be rewarded for forcing their users to promote their apps and apps that don't meet certain privacy requirements will be banned. Recently misbehaving apps Slide's Top Friends and Rock You's Super Wall were banned earlier this month, for example. (Top Friends has since fixed their privacy violations and returned). No longer will these sorts of attention-grabbing apps rule Facebook. Instead, thanks to the new application bookmarking feature which gives you quick access to your most frequently used bookmarks, the most popular apps will be the one that you actually find useful.

New Application Bookmarks, image courtesy of Inside Facebook

You're In Control

As far as user privacy controls, the new design does not change any of the privacy settings previously set, but you will now have more control over what information appears in your feed. You can add and delete items from your feed which now surfaces more "pertinent" information about you. You also have complete control over stories on your profile. According to the Facebook blog post, "you can adjust the size and prominence of stories and can choose between having one-line stories, short or full stories. One-line stories are one sentence long, while short stories include thumbnail photos or content, and full stories display large, noticeable images."

Conclusion

As the Facebook generation grows up, they should find added value in the new redesign which highlights more relevant and current information while putting the most useful aspects of Facebook at their fingertips. And as Facebook becomes less of a place for them to hang out and more of a tool for networking in the business sense of the word, the cleaner design and additional controls make sense. However, the one remaining question is whether or not this new design will work for the younger Facebook users who are still "having fun" on the site or whether they will agree that this was a necessary step to prevent the MySpace-ification of Facebook.

For more details on the changes, All Facebook and Inside Facebook have first looks. You may be able to access the new Facebook by visiting http://www.new.facebook.com, but many people (such as myself) are reporting that this is now doing a redirect back to the www.facebook.com. ]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/like_its_users_the_new_facebook_is_all_grown_up.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/like_its_users_the_new_facebook_is_all_grown_up.php Facebook Mon, 21 Jul 2008 12:36:13 -0800 Sarah Perez Blogs just got a whole new audience: the casual reader. There has been some concern as of late that mainstream web users don't really read blogs, but a new Facebook app called "Blog Networks" aims to change that. The easiest way to describe this app is by calling it MyBlogLog for Facebook (as the headline says), but besides the ability to build a community around your blog, the two apps are rather different. If anything, Blog Networks may have the power to reach an entirely different demographic than MyBlogLog, whose community made up of a lot of blog owners and serious blog readers. The Facebook app, on the other hand, will appeal to casual readers by providing them with an easy-to-use blog directory and a simplified feed reader.

If you do happen to be a blog owner, you can add your blog (if not already present) by uploading an HTML file to your blog. However, this is considered the "Advanced" way to claim ownership. Keeping in mind that this app's users may not be as technically savvy as others, the app presents another way to confirm your blog: have your friends verify your blog for you. To claim your blog using this method, you use the app to send a message to your friends asking them to confirm that "such-and-such.com" is, in fact, a blog owned and maintained by you. Ten friend confirmations later, and you're designed that blog's owner.

The Blog Directory

What's unique about the Blog Networks' blog directory is that it utilizes geographical location retrieved from Facebook's demographics to organize blogs. So, in addition to the "World Top 50" page, there are also separate pages to show the Top 50 blogs in the networks that you're a member of like, for example, Tampa Bay.

You can also browse for blogs in the directory where they are organized by tags and popularity. At the moment, the directory has about 8000 blogs and is growing by 150 new blogs per day. As I browsed through the technology category, I personally came across a slew of new blogs I had not been exposed to yet, so even for less-than-casual blog readers like us, there's a chance you'll find some of value in this app, too - new blogs.

The only drawback to the directory as far as I could tell, was the inability to filter out blogs in other languages, but often the titles would give them away, so you knew which ones were in your language.

The Feed Reader

The Blog Networks' feed reader is designed to be used by people who don't know what RSS is or what it means to subscribe to a feed. Instead, after joining five blog networks, the app automatically guesses the type of stories the user likes and this is displayed in a simple form on the home page. (And nowhere are the words "feed" or "RSS" used).

Each story is displayed one-at-a-time and you can click a "thumbs up" to vote for any story that you find interesting. If your friends have also voted for that story, you'll see their profile images below in an area where it says "Recent Thumbs Up." To continue reading more stories, you then simply click the "More News" button.

With Blog Networks, there's also no need to worry about your blog content being "stolen" to build this app or any conversation fragmentation taking place. The stories from the various blogs are not shown in full - to read the entire story or to leave a comment on the blog, you need to click through to the web site.

The "My Blogs" Feature

The app provides an easy way to put a visual blogroll on your Facebook profile to show off the blogs you read. When you use the app, going to the "My Blogs" page will show the blogs separated into two categories: "Blogs I Author" and "Blogs I Like."

As a blog author, you have a page set up just for your blog which you can invite people to join much in the same way that you would invite your friends to join any app. The page features a Wall for your blog and a "Selected Content" section which you can customize to show some of your best posts.

While in beta testing, the Blog Networks app will only be pulling your feed and your popularity data if you have 15 readers (for the feed) or 20 readers (for the popularity data). Based on how you tagged your blog upon sign-up, you'll also see a list of "Related Blogs" on this page, too.

Conclusion

Overall, the Blog Networks app shows a lot of potential for generating interest in blog reading beyond the core group of the technically savvy who rely on RSS readers like Google Reader or FeedDemon. Although still in beta, the app now has 8000 blogs listed and 20,000 installs to date.

Although MyBlogLog offers some similar features, their Facebook presence is limited to this product page and this group. This is where Blog Networks can fulfill a need. Plenty of people actually do read blogs, but they tend to stumble across them in Google searches, sign up for them via email subscriptions, or occasionally visit their favorites via the blog's URL. Now, they have another way to read: on Facebook.

Of course, the popular Facebook app Feedheads already provides this service in a way. However, the Blog Networks app goes beyond just sharing stories among friends and introduces a real community aspect. Besides, the Feedheads app with its Google Reader integration isn't exactly aimed at the casual blog reader, anyway.

If you want to add the Blog Networks app to your profile, the link is here.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part I - Use Facebook's Features

Use Facebook Email: Here's an answer that speaks profoundly to the generation gap. For some, Facebook email isn't useful at all, while for others, it's one of the most important features.

For true Facebook'ers, real email is for business only. Using Facebook (and MySpace) is how you talk to your friends.

"If I'm talking to any friends it's through a social network," said Asheem Badshah, a teenaged president of Scriptovia.com. "For me even IM died, and was replaced by text messaging. Facebook will replace e-mail for communicating with certain people." (excerpted from CNet)

Use Facebook Events: You don't need an online calendar to plan your schedule - Facebook has an Events app built-in. Here you can manage your events, see your friends' events, and even see when people's birthdays are. Your use of this feature is another telltale sign of which generation of Facebook users you fit into.

Block App Spam: Facebook finally added the "Block Application" option. Whew!

Go Mobile: With this application, you can use Facebook when you're on the go. You can upload photos and notes from your camera phone (mobile@facebook.com) straight to Facebook. You can also receive and reply to Facebook messages, pokes and Wall posts using text messages, or use your phone’s mobile browser at m.facebook.com. To actually use the app, activate your phone here. Don't forget to also add Facebook Video so you can also send in your mobile videos to video@facebook.com, too.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part II - Get Things Done

If you're really going to take advantage of all Facebook can do for you, then you have to find a way to do everything you need to do right in Facebook. Some of these tools (below) can help:

Check eBay: A great example of how the info you need flows into Facebook, the eBay app lets you check on your eBay auctions...and, in true social spirit, those of your friends as well. You can even just comment on auctions without even needing an eBay account.

Use Paypal: Just bought something on eBay? Might as well add Paypal too.

Upload Your Resume: Use an app like Professional Profile to post your resume on Facebook. It also lets you sync your LinkedIn profile and recommendations. There are also other apps for LinkedIn: LinkedIn Contacts and My Linked Profile, too.

Create a Business Card: The business cards app helps you create a custom business card that can be attached to your Facebook messages. (It's email signatures 2.0!)

Use Zoho: Access all your Zoho Office files in Facebook for free. (An unofficial app exists for Google Docs).

Share Files: Who needs Pownce when you can share files in Facebook? Add an app like Box.net or DivShare to do so.

Use Blackboard: Ugh. We know you don't want to, but you kind of have to, so you may as well add Blackboard Sync to Facebook. (Online assignment system for college students).

Make a To-Do List: Some people just love lists. Task Manager can help you GTD.

Use a Calendar: Need a more traditional calendar app? Try this one from 30Boxes, or one of these unofficial Google Calendar apps. Or you could just sync Facebook with any other calendar, both online and off, with fbCal.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part III - Bring Web 2.0/Social Tools Into Facebook:

No need to leave the comfort of Facebook's walls to use the social web - you can just pull the social web into Facebook. Some of the most popular Web 2.0 applications are available as Facebook apps.

Use FriendFeed: No need to go without your daily fix of lifestreaming. The early adopter crowd loves this one.

Use Flickr: Take your pick from 100 applications for using flickr on Facebook...or just use this one.

Use Twitter: Post to Twitter and make your latest tweet your Facebook status.

Use Upcoming: Plan your events via Upcoming and see events taking place in your area, too.

Get Movie Recommendations: Get movies reviews via Flixster so you know whether to rent that flick or see it in the theaters...or not.

Get Restaurant Recommendations: Use Bizzlr to get recommendations for where to eat. (our coverage)

Share Books/Book Reviews: Depending on personal preference, you may like Shelfari, Visual Bookshelf, Goodreads, or Bookshare.

Find People: Use Spock's people search app to find anyone, anywhere.

Link to Other Profiles: With As Seen On, you can link your Facebook profile to other social media profiles.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part IV - Bonus Content!

Make Firefox Better: You can find great add-ons for Firefox with Rock Your Firefox.

Search the Web & Share: Think Microsoft should put Live Search in Facebook? They just did.

Reading the Daily News Facebook-Style: No need to go off-site to get the latest news - customize your own morning paper with Zine.

And More!: Check out our series from last July to get ideas for other Facebook apps for Work, Utilities, and Media. 

But Isn't Facebook Is For "Real" Connections?

What was great about Facebook, at least back in the beginning, was that it grew out of real-life relationships. College students, then high schools students, and eventually everyone else were able to enhance their real life connections through this social network. Unlike MySpace, where many people got into the habit of collecting friends, Facebook became a more private and more accurate reflection of a person's social connections. Even today, many Facebook users turn down friend requests of people they don't know - especially if they're not even accompanied by a note explaining the add.

Those who have been on Facebook since high school (or younger!) also often speak of needing to clean out their friends list to remove those people who aren't in their lives anymore. For them, Facebook is an online reflection of the people they are really keeping in touch with and not a way to amass the most friends in order to appear popular. While this is obviously not true for everyone, in general this is, in fact, one of the big differences between the ways that many use or have used these networks.

Perhaps it's just growing awareness of how much personal information is revealed online or perhaps people just became tired of adding friends just for the sake of adding friends or maybe it's that people finally saw the value in just having their real friends connected online, but whatever the reason, fewer people today are looking to find and add strangers to their friends' lists - in fact, this behavior tends to be associated with "sort of creepy" behavior, as one Gen Y'er recently told me.

Do We Need Personality Matching Tests?

So where does that leave an app like Signal Patterns? At best, it's the most scientific personality quiz you've ever shared with friends. It goes beyond personality tests like the Myers-Briggs that divides the population into a small number of personality types. With a matching score with MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), 1 in 16 of all people would be "like you," but with Signal Patterns you find others who are more similar to your than over 99% of the population.

In addition, there's also a "music personality" survey available where you can apply this same type of detailed scientific discovery to finding others who have the same musical preferences as you do.

While it's true that a certain segment of the online population loves quizzes, the question still remains - are you interested in finding new friends like this?

Slide's VP of strategy and business development, Keith Rabois has confirmed that the company will concentrate on its current applications on Facebook instead of releasing new apps. This seems to be a smart move from the company since Facebook's upcoming overhaul will make things harder for developers to not only get their apps to Facebook users, but also to grow their apps. While Sillicon Alley Insider feels this means the end is near for the Facebook app "landgrab", we feel that Slide may simply be adapting to future conditions of Facebook's new platform until all the kinks are sorted out. On the other hand, this is ultimately good news to new developers entering the Facebook app arena.

The Consequences

What happens if Slide doesn't release another app? If their current applications slow down in growth, this could be a devastating move for the company on Facebook. The move is a smart one for now. They are well established on Facebook with plenty of apps to focus on. Focusing on their current products for now is the best thing the company could do to secure their place until the new overhaul is released and properly tested. However, we wouldn't advise Slide to refrain from releasing apps ever again for Facebook and we would warn them not to wait too long before releasing their next app.

"The other day I saw my oldest daughter get an invite to a party on Facebook, she accepted it, and then went to look at her accepted invite page. It was her social calendar, every party she plans to attend in the next two months is there. She noticed she had another event that night and then switched her acceptance to tentative. She uses Facebook the way I use Outlook."

Although the comment was in the context of a data portability discussion, there was something about this particular excerpt that was striking. Facebook as Outlook. You've heard older corporate execs describing how they "live in Outlook." Well, it's the same with the young digital natives - they just live in Facebook instead. And whether it's a walled garden or not, it doesn't matter to them - all the data they care about is flowing into Facebook. Who cares if it flows back out?

So what makes Facebook so invaluable to them? On a mission to find out, we turned to Twitter of course. But since Twitter's crowd is early adopters, we needed to find what the college kids thought, too. The combined answers gave us our big list (below).

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part I - Use Facebook's Features

Use Facebook Email: Here's an answer that speaks profoundly to the generation gap. For some, Facebook email isn't useful at all, while for others, it's one of the most important features. For even some of the hip early adopters, Facebook messaging (Facebook email) is thought to be this almost inconvenient feature: why should I go to Facebook to read that email? Why can't you just EMAIL me or send me a tweet? The issue is that it's all about what network you live in. For some it's an email inbox, for some it's Twitter, and for others it's Facebook.

For true Facebook'ers, though, real email is for business only. Using Facebook (and MySpace) is how you talk to your friends. (The frightening implications of what this means to an I.T. department that is charged with email archiving for compliance purposes and yet doesn't block Facebook.com is a subject for another article!)

"If I'm talking to any friends it's through a social network," said Asheem Badshah, a teenaged president of Scriptovia.com. "For me even IM died, and was replaced by text messaging. Facebook will replace e-mail for communicating with certain people." (excerpted from CNet)

Use Facebook Events: You don't need an online calendar to plan your schedule - Facebook has an Events app built-in. Here you can manage your events, see your friends' events, and even see when people's birthdays are. Your use of this feature is another telltale sign of which generation of Facebook users you fit into.

Block App Spam: Facebook finally added the "Block Application" option. Whew!

Go Mobile: With this application, you can use Facebook when you're on the go. You can upload photos and notes from your camera phone (mobile@facebook.com) straight to Facebook. You can also receive and reply to Facebook messages, pokes and Wall posts using text messages, or use your phone’s mobile browser at m.facebook.com. To actually use the app, activate your phone here. Don't forget to also add Facebook Video so you can also send in your mobile videos to video@facebook.com, too.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part II - Get Things Done

If you're really going to take advantage of all Facebook can do for you, then you have to find a way to do everything you need to do right in Facebook. Some of these tools (below) can help:

Check eBay: A great example of how the info you need flows into Facebook, the eBay app lets you check on your eBay auctions...and, in true social spirit, those of your friends as well. You can even just comment on auctions without even needing an eBay account.

Use Paypal: Just bought something on eBay? Might as well add Paypal too.

Upload Your Resume: Use an app like Professional Profile to post your resume on Facebook. It also lets you sync your LinkedIn profile and recommendations. There are also other apps for LinkedIn: LinkedIn Contacts and My Linked Profile, too.

Create a Business Card: The business cards app helps you create a custom business card that can be attached to your Facebook messages. (It's email signatures 2.0!)

Use Zoho: Access all your Zoho Office files in Facebook for free. (An unofficial app exists for Google Docs).

Share Files: Who needs Pownce when you can share files in Facebook? Add an app like Box.net or DivShare to do so.

Use Blackboard: Ugh. We know you don't want to, but you kind of have to, so you may as well add Blackboard Sync to Facebook. (Online assignment system for college students).

Make a To-Do List: Some people just love lists. Task Manager can help you GTD.

Use a Calendar: Need a more traditional calendar app? Try this one from 30Boxes, or one of these unofficial Google Calendar apps. Or you could just sync Facebook with any other calendar, both online and off, with fbCal.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part III - Bring Web 2.0/Social Tools Into Facebook:

No need to leave the comfort of Facebook's walls to use the social web - you can just pull the social web into Facebook. Some of the most popular Web 2.0 applications are available as Facebook apps.

Use FriendFeed: No need to go without your daily fix of lifestreaming. The early adopter crowd loves this one.

Use Flickr: Take your pick from 100 applications for using flickr on Facebook...or just use this one.

Use Twitter: Post to Twitter and make your latest tweet your Facebook status.

Use Upcoming: Plan your events via Upcoming and see events taking place in your area, too.

Get Movie Recommendations: Get movies reviews via Flixster so you know whether to rent that flick or see it in the theaters...or not.

Get Restaurant Recommendations: Use Bizzlr to get recommendations for where to eat. (our coverage)

Share Books/Book Reviews: Depending on personal preference, you may like Shelfari, Visual Bookshelf, Goodreads, or Bookshare.

Find People: Use Spock's people search app to find anyone, anywhere.

Link to Other Profiles: With As Seen On, you can link your Facebook profile to other social media profiles.

How to Make Facebook Useful: Part IV - Bonus Content!

Make Firefox Better: You can find great add-ons for Firefox with Rock Your Firefox.

Search the Web & Share: Think Microsoft should put Live Search in Facebook? They just did.

Reading the Daily News Facebook-Style: No need to go off-site to get the latest news - customize your own morning paper with Zine.

And More!: Check out our series from last July to get ideas for other Facebook apps for Work, Utilities, and Media. 

(Special thanks to FriendFeed user Susan Beebe who supplied a lot of great suggestions!)

Along with the Facebook app, Songza is now also offering RSS feeds for the site's top-played songs, the featured songs list, and each user's playlist of newly added tunes, which is found on the user profile page. With that last one, the user playlist feed, you now have the ability to add Songza to a lifestreaming service such as FriendFeed, for example.

The last part of the Songza announcement involves the launch of their API. By using the API, developers can build custom widgets and applications based on Songza data. The API can be used to access the featured songs list, a user's playlist, and the last ten songs a user has added to their playlist. At the moment, Songza isn't imposing any limitations on the number of times requests can be made to the API, but they do remind developers that their feeds only update every 15 minutes, so there isn't much point to polling more often than that. 

Because Songza finds its music on the internet, it can be useful for locating more obscure artists or live performances. And since the service doesn't allow for downloads, only streaming, it's legit. They even pay artists based on how many times a song was streamed via licenses with the major performing-rights organizations (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC). However, the best thing about Songza is that you can listen to a song as many times as you want in its entirety, unlike Last.fm, whose on-demand service lets you play any particular song, too, but only in full three times before receiving a prompt to purchase it.]]>Discuss]]> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/songza_announces_facebook_app_and_api.php http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/songza_announces_facebook_app_and_api.php Products Fri, 16 May 2008 07:11:48 -0800 Sarah Perez Many small and medium sized businesses may have an interest in maintaining a presence on social networks, but don't the time, money, or resources to do so. For them, a new service provided by a company called Bizzlr can help. For a small monthly fee, companies can use Bizzlr's solution to connect with customers on many of the major social networks.

With the top social networks having 183 million users, 70% of them being 15-34 year olds, Bizzlr realized there was a real need to provide tools to businesses that wouldn't otherwise have the ability to reach their customers on these platforms.

To aid these businesses in expanding their reach, Bizzlr has just launched their turnkey solution, which comes  in the form of an social network application and is currently available on Facebook, MySpace, and Hi5. Support for Bebo, LinkedIn, and Ning is said to be coming soon. The application supports both the Facebook API and the OpenSocial API, so it will work on most of the major social networks.

With Bizzlr, companies, even small ones that don't have their own web site, can connect with their customers quickly and easily on the social networks where their customers spend their time. The fee for doing so is an affordable $19.95/month (or $199/year), so it's not out of the reach of any mom-and-pop shop.

How It Works

Bizzlr uses proprietary algorithms to target customers based on their tastes and preferences. These customers can then easily share the business with their friends, via a modern-day word-of-mouth referral.

For the company using Bizzlr, the app can be a promotional tool used post specials and coupons for their customers to enjoy, as well as a way to maintain a profile page listing their information, phone number, and other news about their company.

Bizzlr in Action

For customers, there's no need to worry about unwanted spam or tracking from these Bizzlr or the companies using it - you have the choice to install the Bizzlr app or not, just like you do with anything else on a social network.

The New Word-of-Mouth

At the moment, Bizzlr focuses on the food and restaurant industry, but will soon be expanding into healthcare, childcare, nightlife, and more.

When trying the tool today, I actually found that it could be pretty useful. I added it on Facebook and entered in my city in the Location box. I could then search for restaurants and add them to "My Restaurants." When adding a new restaurant, you're prompted to tag it, but suggested tags are displayed and pre-checked for you. (Nice!)

On the next screen that appears, you can then see the restaurant's current popularity (both on Bizzlr and with your friends), see it on the map, read news & find coupons (if available), follow the restaurant's activity on Bizzlr, rate the restaurant, add your own comments, and discover similar restaurants. As a final, and optional, step, you can choose to tell a friend about the restaurant. Heck, this is a whole Web 2.0 app built within a social network!

Of course, like so many things, the value in Bizzlr will be directly related to how many people start using it, but if the company can break through that barrier and get enough customers and businesses on board, this could certainly take off.

You were sick of throwing sheep at each other on Facebook anyway, weren't you?

According to Rattray, that's because the Facebook platform is biased against them. "The only way for a Facebook app to get any sort of distribution is to have a viral coefficient over 1. This is an extremely high barrier for any app in which inviting friends is not an inherent part of using it," writes Rattray in an email republished on Andrew Chen's blog.

Fun Apps are Built to Go Viral

Utility apps on Facebook rely on word of mouth to spread, while "fun" apps tend to use the platform's built in viral action mechanisms (friend invites, news feed stories, etc.). It becomes exceptionally difficult for utility apps to achieve a viral coefficient above 1 when relying solely on word of mouth -- or people talking about their app because they're excited to use it. In otherwords, "Witchdoctors vs. Shopping Mall Security Guards" will get very popular because it has a built in viral transmission mechanism (invite friends), but most utility apps don't have that -- you don't need to invite your friends to an application that manages your schedule, and there are fewer chances for news feed insertions -- and so must rely on word of mouth.

Facebook actually compounds the problem because the sheer number of apps has created noise and made it less likely for people to accept invites. "Given current invitation conversation rates of 5% or less (at least what I'm hearing), for an app to go viral, you have to get people to invite an average of at least 20 friends," says Rattray. "How many utility based apps can achieve that? How many inspire so much passion that its users tell 20 friends, on average? Few, even if people find the app incredibly useful."

Rattray also compares the Facebook platform to one of history's most successful computing platform plays: Windows. Windows apps, he says, are rarely viral. Instead, they gain users via distribution deals with big box electronics stores, of which the application directory is the Facebook equivalent. But the directory is so overloaded with choices that it has become virtually useless as a distribution tool. To the extent that it is used, which apps get top billing? Largely the silly viral applications that tend to be the most popular for reasons already stated.

The Solution

"As a final note," writes Rattray, "[...] it seems almost certain that Facebook itself didn't realize when they launched the platform that they created a system in which it was nearly impossible to achieve the very thing they claimed to seek -- greater utility." Facebook is now trying to remedy the situation by tweaking rules about app invites and news feed insertions, but making it easier for useful apps which have no built in viral mechanism to go viral on the network is itself not an easy task. Rattray suggests an overhauled directory that is perhaps personalized for each user based on app ratings gleaned from their social graph.

In a follow up email to Chen, Rattray wonders if perhaps Facebook users just aren't interested in useful apps -- a common sentiment in comments here whenever I make a post on this topic. "I think it's possible that Facebook users as a whole just aren't that interested in utility-based apps," he concedes. "But I also think that a strong argument can be made that Facebook could be a compelling utility." Because of the way distribution on the platform is set up, it's a question that can't really be answered until useful apps have been given their fair shake at exposure.

According to Rattray, "From a business standpoint, if Facebook wants to keep their core audience engaged beyond college, attract an older audience that has never used Facebook, and better monetize both groups, they're going to do more than offer fun ways to communicate with friends."

It's possible for a malicious Facebook application, like the one used in the news story, to masquerade as a game or a quiz. And unlike protecting yourself from phishing emails, it's not simply good enough for you to "know better" yourself - if even one of your friends installs the app, your details get stolen too.

Despite the severity of this potential hack, stories like this one are old news in the realm of those who follow social network hacking trends.

For example, white hat hacker "theharmonyguy," wrote on his blog Social Hacking back in March about an app he submitted to social media instructor, Lee Aase's, $100 hacking challenge. His app, once installed, would grab any available information from a private Facebook group. The app didn't win the challenge, however, since it required action on the part of the user to be successful.

However, theharmonyguy points out that although Facebook has a Terms of Use that restricts applications from storing most user data, "there is not a practical way for Facebook to enforce or even completely audit this requirement." And since these applications are third party code, they are essentially running on the honor system.

Facebook, especially, has been plagued by security lapses as of late, with the AP reporting news about a security exploit that exposed private photos on the site back in March. However as one of our own commenters pointed out, this hack was known as early as February, it just took the AP's coverage to bring attention to the matter.

Then there was a story in January about Facebook app Secret Crush that downloaded and installed spyware to your computer. However, it's not just Facebook under the gun - back in November, TechCrunch reported on an OpenSocial hack, this one involving the RockYou and Plaxo.

Reading these types of stories remind us that our security on these networks are in the hands of unknown developers, not just the sites themselves - developers who may be more concerned with getting their apps completed and installed than they are with security.

Facebook's response to this latest BBC story is that they have "an entire investigations team that watches the site and removes content and third-party applications that violate Facebook's Terms of Use." However, they advise users to "employ the same precautions while downloading software from Facebook applications that they use when downloading software on their desktop."

In other words, your security is left to the tech-savviness of you and your friends. (Considering my years in I.T./end user support, that's a frightening concept. Many users aren't smart, savvy, or careful when online.)

Even worse, if you do become a victim of an attack, good luck getting support from Facebook on dealing with it. As Lauren Cooney reports after her account was compromised to send out spam, she emailed the Facebook team several times, and spent the better part of an hour trying to track down a customer service number to no avail, noting "you would think that a company that collects that much data on their users would consider having a customer service number." In the end, it was nine hours before she received an email response.

What this means for the average social networker is that we need to be very careful on these networks, and should not entirely rely on them to keep us safe. If there's really a photo you don't want certain people to see, maybe it's best to keep it offline forever. We also need to be vigilante about the applications we install, on Facebook and elsewhere, and take the time to educate our friends to do the same.

Recently though, RealNetworks launched their own version of online Scrabble, "Scrabble by Mattel," a completely legal and authorized version of the game. The "Scrabble by Mattel" app, released through RealNetworks' Gamehouse division, was made in agreement with Mattel, so, technically, it's only legal outside the U.S. and Canada.

But why recreate the wheel? Scrabulous is already doing quite well and is one of Facebook's most popular, not to mention one of their stickiest apps, drawing people to their site just for the purpose of playing the game.

And early reviews of "Scrabble" are mixed, at best, according to a recent NY Times article. Users are saying that "Scrabble by Mattel" "takes a long time to load, does not always update quickly to show recent moves, and the words the game will accept do not reflect the Tournament World List Scrabble dictionary."

With Scrabulous's appeal, one wonders why Mattel opted for their own version of the game - could it have something to do with this rumor about the creators, Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla, and the tens of millions of dollars they wanted for their app? Perhaps Mattel just found that figure ridiculous.

So is Scrabulous doomed? Not necessarily. This move by Mattel doesn't have to mean that Scrabulous will be no more. There's still Hasbro to think of, and they recently worked out a deal with Bogglific, the online version of Boggle.

After submitting a takedown notice to Facebook over both Scrabulous and Bogglific, the Bogglific app rebranded and changed their scoring system and now continues, apparently legally, as Prolific. Scrabulous might be able to do the same. Facebook certainly doesn't want to remove the app just yet - they didn't even comply with the takedown.

However, RealNetworks' PR manager, Ryan Luckin, stated for the NY Times article, that "it is important to remember that even if we reach an arrangement with the Scrabulous owners, both Hasbro and Mattel must approve any Scrabble-related game."

And since Mattel clearly doesn't approve, fans should still be a little worried.

Who Has the Biggest Brain

The first application during App Nite was the Facebook Game "Who Has the Biggest Brain" a game by the company Playfish. The concept behind the facebook application is a series of 4 minute games that lets you compare intelligence against your friends in Facebook. The game has 600k installs this week and 100k active users per day who play over 500k games per day. It's actually quite impressive that the average 'active user' is playing 5 games per day, especially when you consider according to the presenter it took 4 weeks to develop. It also doesn't require adding friends to be able to play the game (friend spam).

Just 3 Words

The next game was created by Scoob & Geko and is actually based on the parlor game where patrons would pass a paper around the bar each adding 3 words to a collective story. In this case, the application "Just 3 Words" has brought that game to Facebook. Interestingly, the average user spends 7 minutes per day on the site and a "statistically significant portion of the audience" spends more than 2 hours per day. So far over 60 thousand stories have been created across 3 million entries. All of the stories are licensed under creative commons.

Puzzle Messages

The next application "Puzzle Messages" was created by The Broth. The presenter admitted this was a very simple application, basically it allows users to create a jigsaw puzzle that encodes a message and send to the recipient who has to solve the puzzle to read the message.

Ski & Snowboard

The next application Ski & Snowboard is an application that allows Facebook users to identify, track and report on visits to ski resorts around the world. The application has a very nice map drive interface. There were two very interesting points from the demonstration. First, they came up with a really interesting (somehow feels less spamy) way to get users to invite their friends. They allow each user to state their skiing level, but requires 3 friends to confirm that level. The other interesting thing is that they actually started with 1000 resorts in their system, but through their users had about 200 more added and some of the geocoding corrected on the first 1000 resorts.

Dipity

Dipity is a startup focused on 'organizing the web using time.' In other words, they want to pull in data from Facebook. Currently 17,000 timelines have been created. At Graphing Social, they announced a new feature that allows their users to add other services' content streams to the timeline (such as Twitter Feeds.) Beyond creating personal timelines, users can create public pages on Facebook around other events such as this public page on the Federal Reserve.

Developer Analytics

The last presentation was by Developer Analytics. They have created a suite of tools for developers. These include a set of analytics for Facebook developers around revenue, virality and engagement. They also are displaying leader boards for the top applications and top ad networks. However, the thing I personally found most interesting (probably because I haven't created an app) is the fact they are also creating content - specifically case studies and interviews around Facebook applications.

Open Social Apps

Know Your Neighbor

The Know Your Neighbor app was positioned as "Twitter for your community & neighbors ... on steriods." Basically, the idea is that users can organize their friends list based on geographic location. Currently the version demonstrated automatically picks the most 10 closest friends, but when this launches it will let users pick how many users they want to group together. Then they can post messages to groups of friends. While this application is clearly very rough, I have already predicted hyperlocal will be a big theme in 2008 and it would be great to see some social apps try to tap into this.

Living Social

Hungary Machine presented next on their application Reading Social, which seems to have evolved from their Facebook app Visual Bookshelf. Bsically, the book allows user of a social network to share their reviews on books they read but now it works across social networks. Interestingly, they have more book reviews than Amazon today. They have also created a number of similar applications -- Drinking Social for Beer, Dining Social for restaurants, and Tune Social for music.

Trip Wiser

Trip Wiser is an application that works across social networks to discover things to do. The basic idea is that they have developed a 8 question compatibility quiz to try and determine your travel preferences. Once filling this out you can review different places you've visited and get recommendations of new places to visit. Currently, they have about 400 thousand locations reviewed across their network.

Chirp Screen

The final presentation of App Nite was Chirp Screen an interactive screen saver that shows activity across sites like Flickr, Facebook and Twitter. It also allows users to link back or post comments. Unfortunately, the screen saver only works in Windows right now but a OS/X version is on the way.

Conclusion

And the winner is .... First place - Developer Analytics, Second Place - LivingSocial , and third place Chirp.

We would love to hear any other tips, from those of you who have created your own Facebook apps. Please leave a comment below.