The Facebook app is dead, long live Facebook apps

I'm at the Facebook Fund Demo Day event in Palo Alto, listening to COO Cheryl Sandberg blithely dismiss the entire Facebook Platform that the company launched in 2007. Since 2008 the big thing has been Facebook Connect, the utility that allows developers to build sites that can be logged in to using Facebook IDs. More importantly, Facebook Connect allows developers to access Facebook users' social networks in their own Web sites.

In other words, the Facebook app is nearly dead, and good riddance to it. Users don't like adding entire apps to their profile anymore just because some random friend sends them a link. Instead, the new way to leverage Facebook is to use the Facebook network, but within destination sites.

For example, the pick of the Demo Day is Thread, a dating site that uses Facebook Connect. You log in with your Facebook ID, and then you can troll -- sorry, search -- the available friends of your friends. If you like what you see in the lineup, you can ask the friend who connects you both for an introduction. It's like LinkedIn for dates. The site is free now, but may charge at some point for extended search capabilities or some such. Traditional dating sites like Match.com and eHarmony show that there is a lot of revenue potential in this model.

Thread co-founder Brian Phillips pitches at the FBFund demo day.

(Credit: Rafe Needleman/CNET)

Threads just announced that it's raised $1.2 million in a round led by First Round Capital.

As I said, Thread is not a Facebook app. It's a destination site that uses Facebook's "social graph in the cloud" (as FBFund adviser Joe Beninato calls it) to short-cut the hardest part of building a social connection site.

Other standalone apps here include RunMyErrand, which connects people who need stuff picked up with those willing to do so. Again, it uses Facebook Connect to point users to people in their social network to run errands, to improve the trust factor. It's like have a bicycle messenger network where you actually know the messengers. Frankly I don't see it as a business with legs (sorry...but I mean it) but it is a great example of how, with Facebook Connect, you can build a social product that would be utterly impossible otherwise.

ZimRide is similar: It lets users find carpool buddies. Workstir uses Facebook connections to refer people to professional service providers. Again, it'd be nearly impossible to get any scale quickly with services like these without a pre-built social network.

Other interesting services that use Facebook Connect from the Demo Day include RentMineOnline, a service that rental property managers can use to get referrals to open units from tenants (tenants on Facebook recommend units in their building to their friends), and GroupCard, a site that lets networks of friends create booklet greeting cards from entire groups to particular friends.

One of the few companies I saw here that's actually building a Facebook app: Friend Radio. It scours your friends' music preferences from their profiles, and then uses that data to stuff your playlist with tunes. You can include or exclude specific friends, and the list of friends is ranked by music taste similarity (assuming you've entered your own music preferences in your profile; only about 35 percent of users do). When you hear something you like, you flag it to refine your future results.

The Friend Radio player lives inside your Facebook session, and stays with you as you move from page to page inside the site. I'm not exactly sure why this service needs to live in Facebook, since the Facebook Connect data would make a standalone site (like Pandora or Last.fm) possible. But conceptually, it works: You stay in Facebook, listening to music your Facebook friends like.

It's good to see Facebook, and Facebook app developers, take what works about the open Facebook platform -- the network of friends -- and run with it. And it's to Facebook's credit that the company let developers out of the walled garden of Facebook itself. While I do feel that many of the social apps that use Facebook Connect are not much more than shavings off the main social tree, some of the ideas here will flourish, and it's thanks to Facebook's open social network that they're able to get off the ground at all.

[arbrackin]

Most people I know only use like 3 apps but they use those apps A LOT!

[snapelicious]

The title of this article is a play on the (chiefly British) proclamation: "The King is dead. Long live the King." But Mr. Needleman clearly does not understand the meaning of that expression. Do your homework before using words and phrases you don't understand!!

[bitofbetterbutter]

My "homework" clearly shows that the proclamation has roots in French and while it refers to accession of a new monarch, the saying is not exclusive to that application. Wikipedia states: "the phrase crops up regularly as a headline for articles, editorials, or advertisements on themes of succession or replacement". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_King_is_dead._Long_live_the_King.)

Perhaps somebody doesn't understand that these little sayings have a way of changing with the times...

[stepyourgameup]

Shouldn't it have said, "The Facebook App is Dead, Long Live Facebook Connect?"

[Renegade Knight]

@bitofbetterbutte

My homework was to think for about 2 second about how it's been used in the movies and such in my lifetime. Rafe nails it. snapelicious must be a lot older than me.

[gilbertfh]

@bitofbetterbutter
I am sure you know this but you probably shouldn't quote Wikipedia. If I wanted to I could start a wiki entry on how the blue cheese moon tastes. It is written and edited by people that may or may not be credible sources. Come up with a credible source and people are more likely to take you seriously.

[sting7k]

Facebook apps are lame, always blocked and don't like them. I've already used the Facebook connect for a couple of things.

[tsaojk]

It's great for application developers to be able to tap into a user's FB connections, and in the not too distant future, a substantial percentage of FB traffic will be FB connect traffic. The question is, how will FB monetize this? This will basically undercut real eye ball traffic to the FB site and will make the FB ads less attractive.

[LiftSurfer]

I think the new platform is great! I just built my first app, www.liftsurfer.com (rideshare site for finding cross country rides) and have a ton of ideas how to use the platform for other stuff. They only problem is that us developers are very reliant on facebook to ensure the platform remains as-is. They pulled the rug from under the feet of developers majorly with the initial platform. I understand the reasons, but I major effort was used developers which was lost.

[afrenz]

I like the Facebook Connect platform - I used it for http://iusem.com . You can see what I use here: http://iusem.com/?id=123456789

iUsem is a social network designed around sharing what you use with real people you know.

The idea the company is founded on is that most people would rather get reviews and suggestions from their friends and neighbors rather than random people online. You can connect to your friends through Facebook using Facebook Connect.

[WeCanDoBIZ]

Thank goodness! I've been saying Facebook Platform would die since developers got shafted with the Facebook redesign last year which meant that no one could find apps anymore, which particularly upset those in the dev community who'd built whole businesses and income streams around Facebook.

Facebook Connect to enable users to sign in to apps that operate away from the Facebook site makes much more sense. It's clear FB sees much greater potential in providing access to its base of users to third party developers, where stuff you do on those sites can then be posted back to FB as activity. The developers get more form it and it helps establish FB as your de facto "social identity". The FriendFeed acquisition makes this while story even more compelling, as it will help feed activity updates between FB and other social locations.

Anyone wishing to add Facebook Connect to their site should check out JanRain's RPX. We use it here and it was a matter of days to integrate to our site:

http://www.wecando.biz/access/php

There is loads more we plan to do with it, including bringing FB friend details over to your Social CRM app so you can log opportunities and more.

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

[sbugbug]

What I see the most in my FB wall was IQ Test, Happy Farm misc none-sense junks. I always feel there should be more constructive stuff to share and talks between friends.

http://iusem.com seems like a good stuff but interface aren't sufficient.

I did a search and come across a thing called http://www.smallaa.com, very neat indeed. Worth to try it out in my opinion.

[octocentric]

facebook apps are so stupid, so effing stupid, i hate HATE HATE when people waste their time on apps, and when novice idiots send out the invites to everyone, facebook is about communicating with people, not seeing who is playing farmville, i dont give a ****! i just chose the option to ignore/hide any app when i see it pop up in my feed...

[Blackberryluvr]

Yep. That's the reason I gave Facebook a rest here awhile back. I got sick & tired of the same mess. I don't live on a farm now; so I definitely don't feel like owning a bunch of farm animals on Facebook. I just wanted to be able to communicate with friends. And several of them have e-mailed me & said they were giving it a rest, also.