Facebook rolls out its revamped apps directory

As anticipated from last week's Facebook company blog post, the company has rolled out a redesigned directory of applications that has been tweaked to better show off verified applications. The company has also trimmed the number of categories down to just seven from a list that had grown to 22.

Verified applications are those that have gone through Facebook's new annual verification program, which costs $375, or $175 for students. Facebook vets these apps to make sure they conform to the company's standards both in content and in API usage.

Apps that have been verified get a little green check mark next to their name, along with a large badge that goes on their description pages. With this move it also nets verified apps more exposure within the directory. They're now shown off in a new featured section that goes on top of all the other applications in each category.

While users can choose to only view verified apps in each category, one area where verified apps do not have as much importance is with Facebook's search. If you do a search for an app, it does not tell you whether it's been verified or not within the results, something that Facebook could change as an additional incentive for developers to pay up to get verified.

The new Facebook apps directory is a little more trimmed down, and highlights applications that have been verified with a little green check mark.

(Credit: CNET)

[PigSpigot]

What's weird to me about this is not that FB is basically blackmailing developers into paying them for "verification," but that this is part of their business model at all. Taxing content creators as opposed to consumers seems like a poor way to run a company.
-David

[Josh.Lowensohn]

I don't know if I'd use "blackmail" here. It's not that they don't get to be in the directory if they don't pay up. If I were a developer I'd be a bit irked though; you're paying the company to do a policing job on the code and the content that it should be doing anyway. The promotional business in the directory should be another side of the business.