The Social

A look at Google's Android mobile operating system.

(Credit: Google)

Last we heard, we'd be seeing phones powered by Google's Android open-source software in the second half of 2008. A report Monday from The Wall Street Journal has narrowed that down somewhat: Those handsets will start appearing in the fourth quarter of this year, a later time frame than expected.

And according to the Journal, some handset manufacturers are "struggling" to get Android on track even for a fourth-quarter launch. Sprint Nextel and China Mobile, the world's largest cell carrier, reportedly won't be able to put out Android-powered phones until next year. Other carriers, like T-Mobile, claim their Android phones are still on track.

Some developers of mobile applications, on the other hand, have been sidetracked by the announcement of the iPhone 3G, the second-generation version of Apple's ubiquitous handsets. With a lower price point, a developer kit already released, and a concrete launch date of July 11, not to mention faster Web access and a built-in GPS chip, the appeal of the new iPhone may have pushed Android to the back burner for some companies.

That rumor of a $400 million valuation might not be too far off base: social-media application powerhouse RockYou announced Monday that it has raised $35 million in Series C venture capital.

The round was led by venture firm DCM, with contributions from several private investors. Previous RockYou investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Partech International, and Sequoia Capital.

It's the kind of money that may raise a few eyebrows, considering many believe the social-application space doesn't offer a proven business model yet. RockYou is responsible for a number of popular applications--SuperWall, Vampires, Likeness, X Me--on Facebook and several OpenSocial-compatible platforms (MySpace, Hi5, Friendster, Bebo, and Orkut), as well as an ad network. The company has already done marketing campaigns for clients like Paramount, New Line Cinema, Sony, Microsoft, and CBS, and claims to have 87.5 million monthly unique visitors with 2.7 billion page views.

Along with Slide, RockYou is one of the biggest companies in the social-network application development space. And with the $35 million, RockYou plans to work on "additional tools and services" to further improve its advertising platform for brands and marketing campaigns that want to jump on the social-application craze.

"DCM believes that RockYou will be the catalyst of this new global ecosystem that delivers next-generation advertisements through its innovative advertising network and social applications," DCM co-founder and general partner David Chao said in a release. "With the current momentum, RockYou is positioned to become a top-10 Internet property in the world in the near future."

Disclosure: CBS, one of RockYou's past clients, has agreed to acquire CNET Networks, publisher of News.com. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Facebook has made a number of changes to the behind-the-scenes workings of its developer platform, according to a blog post Monday by engineer Pete Bratach.

For the most part, the updates are geared toward two things: letting users keep tabs on spammy apps, and giving developers and app creators more insight into the people who are using their products.

This is a much bigger deal for the people creating and operating Facebook applications than for average users, but members will notice a few differences. Rather than "adding" applications, Facebook users will "log in" to them and will have an option to "remain logged in." It's the social network's answer to users who want a "try before you buy" option. Once they've logged in, they can opt to put the applications in their profiles. They'll also be able to choose from the get-go whether they want the application to send them e-mail notifications.

Even though Facebook says it will likely make users less hesitant to play with applications they aren't sure they'll want to keep around, it's bound to irritate a few developers who will say it makes it tougher for them to "go viral" and get the word out about their applications. Users, however, will likely appreciate the fact that they'll have fewer unwanted e-mails and undesirable applications cluttering their online lives.

On the flip side, developers get a few new perks. Bratach's post also announced that Facebook will be releasing new analytics for application owners so that they can know more about who's installing and using their code. They will find out many people have used an app in the past week, how many people have "bookmarked" the app or subscribed to e-mail notifications, and how many times the home (or "canvas") page for the application has been viewed.

Also down the road for Facebook: open-source code on the platform, and redesigned profile pages. The social network, which started the developer platform craze shortly over a year ago, has to keep both users and developers pleased; its team has a tough rival in OpenSocial, which is backed by the likes of Google, MySpace, and Yahoo.

All gold rushes must come to an end, and according to one new report, Facebook's developer platform is no exception.

Facebook developer Jesse Farmer, creator of developer analytics service Adonomics, did an extensive amount of number-crunching after coming to an odd observation earlier this year: "Something is wrong in the Facebook developer community," Farmer wrote in a blog post Tuesday. "Starting in March I began noticing that the level of activity in the Facebook developers forum was dropping sharply."

Farmer's research confirmed his speculation: activity in the Facebook developer forum, from posts per day to highly active users, had fallen notably from January to April. In other words, that likely means there's less activity on the part of independent developers hoping to tap into Facebook's massive audience.

One possible reason, Farmer wrote, is the fact that Facebook isn't the only hub for social-network application developers anymore. Google kickstarted the OpenSocial standard last year, and Bebo, newly acquired by AOL, is currently the only social network that supports both Facebook and OpenSocial applications.

It could also mean, as Farmer pointed out, less chatter taking place in an open forum as application creators grow more concerned about the effect of competition in the packed developer space.

Or perhaps, he suggests, small-time developers might be disillusioned. Facebook, in an effort to curb spam, has instituted new regulations that some developers find controversial. Then there's the presence of big application companies like Slide and RockYou, which dominate the rankings of the most popular Facebook applications and have valuations in the hundreds of millions. Not only do they dwarf smaller developers, but they also snap up programmer talent that might otherwise be independent.

"Networks like Zynga and Social Gaming Network have cropped up in the last few months and have made it their business to consolidate the game space on Facebook, probably the only real vertical that has found success on the platform," Farmer wrote. "Bigger companies like Slide and RockYou have been actively recruiting from the Facebook developer pool all along, too."

Is the Facebook platform doomed? Hardly. But if Farmer's research is accurate, it's a sign that the initial frenzy is finally quieting--it's been a year, after all.

(Credit: FlowingData)

The world of social networking may never be the same.

A new study from number-crunching firm Flowing Data did some eye-opening work recently, dividing 23,160 Facebook applications into 22 categories. A whopping 9,601 of them fall into Facebook's "just for fun" category, followed by "gaming" and "sports" with over 2,000 each. In other words, the majority of Facebook applications are goofy time-wasters.

This is an unsettling piece of news that I don't think any of us saw coming.

It's true, though. Since the debut of Facebook's developer platform, there has been an onslaught of annoy-your-friends applications like Slide's SuperPoke and popular gaming apps like Scrabulous. But really "useful" applications have yet to make the same kind of splash, despite a few promising debuts like Six Apart's Blog It and quasi-promising ones like the "social college application" widget.

Ever come across one of those Facebook Platform applications that required you to spam a dozen of your friends with invites before you could access the results of your "Vampire Jedi Zombie Personality Quiz"?

They're annoying. And now Facebook has done something about it. Developer applications must "offer some navigation option to leave the friend invite process," according to a change in the social-networking site's platform policy. If an application's friend-invite page doesn't contain one of Facebook's in-house "Skip This Step," "Cancel," or "Skip" buttons, it has to contain an alternative way to navigate away from the friend invite process.

Developers whose applications ignore the new regulations reportedly receive warning letters that threaten shutdown if they fail to comply.

This is a big step toward cleaning up the cluttered Facebook app directory. Ideally, it will cut down on some of the "app invite overkill" that's led many Facebook users to groan every time they're invited to the corny application du jour. And it'll likely mean that Facebook members will probably only be passing on invites to applications they actually like, rather than spamming their friends just so they can learn what character from Hannah Montana they most resemble.

It will also mean your friends won't have to know that you even installed such an abhorrent application.

As expected, MySpace has announced that it will launch its developer platform on Tuesday morning.

MySpace, which is owned by News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media, is one of the most high-profile social media companies to be working with Google's new OpenSocial standard. All applications for the MySpace Developer Platform will be OpenSocial-compatible with MySpace-specific extensions.

A look at MySpace's developer site.

(Credit: MySpace)

Developers will have access to all public profile data (interests, region, friends' list) and will be able to use JavaScript and HTML as well as ActionScript, which powers Flash applications. Most of the HTML widgets that have become so popular on MySpace profiles were created with Flash; Flash applications on the MySpace platform will now be able to integrate the site's application program interfaces (APIs) so that they can access deeper site and user data.

Kyle Brinkman, general manager of the MySpace platform, told CNET News.com that for added security the platform will be using a Google-developed technology called "Kaja" in order to keep vulnerabilities out of the code, particularly JavaScript. Applications will have to go through a review process before they go live, but Brinkman was unable to say just how long that process will take.

Developer platforms became the craze du jour among social-networking sites when Facebook made a splash with its widget initiative last May. Other social networks, like Bebo and LinkedIn, have already launched their own versions; Google's OpenSocial has promised a universal standard, but most social networks have opted to create their own add-ons and extensions.

MySpace has hyped up the fact that, unlike rival Facebook, it will not be forging any deals with "launch partners" who have early access to the platform. It won't go live to MySpace users until early March, which means that developers have a one-month window in which they can create and tweak their applications, test them out in "sandbox" profiles, and prep them for a full launch. When the platform is fully live, MySpace users will be able to browse and select applications through an official "application gallery."

As a kickoff for the MySpace Developer Platform, the company will hold a party for interested developers at its new San Francisco office on Tuesday night; events in London and Berlin will follow in the coming days.

It might still be January, but Facebook has decided to introduce a sort of virtual spring cleaning.

The social-networking site, which famously opened its gates to developer applications last May, announced late on Thursday that it will soon be instituting a way for app-happy Facebookers to keep up appearances by relegating many of their widgets to an "extended profile." By clicking the button, you will be able to hide everything except Facebook's own applications and a number of others, and a "Show Extended Profile" button will reveal the entire thing to you or your friends.

AllFacebook noted that this may mean bad news for developers who've created little-known Facebook applications and are counting on viral buzz to grow their products. If those applications are rendered invisible by "extended profile" controls, that viral expansion could be stalled. Aside from that, I think the "profile cleanup" is a great idea. My kid brother's Facebook page is covered in more zombies and vampires than a Mystery Science Theater 3000 double-feature, and it ain't pretty.

But on a closing note, may I offer a plea to the blogging masses: Let's try to stop freaking out over every single announcement of an impending update to Facebook, every set-your-TiVo appearance of an executive, and each new time-wasting developer application.

Mark Zuckerberg's baby is a big deal, and has been a big deal for some time now. But, guys, it's getting to the point where we're monitoring Facebook's every move as though Zuckerberg were Suri Cruise. This might not apply to blogs that strictly cover Facebook, but for the rest of us--let's make a collective belated New Year's resolution to broaden our horizons a bit.

That said, it's a resolution I probably won't stick to.

Update at 12:10 p.m. PST: Comment from Zango has been added.

Good riddance: Facebook has banned the "Secret Crush" application due to reports of its affiliation with a notorious spyware manufacturer.

The social-networking site confirmed the breakup on Monday: "Facebook is committed to user safety and security and, to that end, its Terms of Service for developers explicitly state that applications should not use adware and spyware," a statement from the company read. "We have contacted the developers and have disabled the Secret Crush application for violating Facebook Platform Terms of Service."

Lonely Facebook users eager to find which of their friends had the hots for them were served up with the nasty news last week. According to a report from security firm Fortinet, invitations luring members with the message "One of your friends might have a crush on you!" contained a link to software from Zango, a company whose name has become almost synonymous with adware. Upon installing the application, users were informed that they needed to "invite" at least five more friends to Secret Crush before going on, and then were invited to download a "Crush Calculator" application that contained Zango software.

Tragically, duped Facebook members never did get to learn which people on their friends list had crushes on them.

Zango has publicly denied involvement with Secret Crush, publishing a blog post dismissing Fortinet's claims and saying that Secret Crush hadn't disappeared--it had just changed its name to "My Admirer."

"In the case of the Zango ad seen by Fortinet, if clicked it would have taken a consumer to Zango's standard plain-language notice and consent page where consumers could choose to install Zango software and access (without subscription) a Zango Astrology application--or choose not to install the software," the Zango blog post read. "Although we did not purchase this ad directly, it was placed by one of our advertising partners within the Facebook system, which appears to be a completely legitimate practice."

Spyware and adware claims are nothing new in the social-networking world; Facebook's chief rival, the News Corp.-owned MySpace.com, has had issues with adware masked as YouTube videos, for example. The recent news nevertheless raises the question of how quickly Facebook, or any other site that accepts third-party developer content, should be expected to take action in this kind of situation. AllFacebook reported that 1.5 million users had installed Secret Crush before it was taken down; this kind of situation will certainly add to the debate over how attentive a company built on user- and developer-generated content needs to be.

In its statement concerning the Secret Crush takedown, Facebook responded pre-emptively to potential criticism by stressing that members should be aware that they are dealing with third-party content on the Facebook Platform. "Users should employ the same precautions while downloading software from Facebook applications that they use when downloading software on their desktop," the company warned.