A Reflection of Facebook (c) Getty Images

Yesterday, Facebook announced they were moving to compete against Google’s OpenSocial platform by openly releasing their Facebook Development Platform to other Social Networks. What does all this infrastructure release really mean? Simply, that Facebook is trying to connect your user profile with other big web destinations, and they’re racing Google to cover the most ground first.

I think Facebook has a shot. There is no comparison between the ease of use of Facebook and Google’s still overcomplicated Orkut. Facebook currently has the edge on hype (important to advertisers and big companies trying to get in to social networks) and an unquestionable command of the North American and U.K. demographics.

Only time will tell who will come out victorious, and I’m going to leave stating why I think it will be Facebook. In the end, the Social Networking game comes down to user satisfaction, ease-of-use, and timing. And just the other day, Facebook made one of those small changes that will give every user a small but welcome smile in their day. They upgraded Facebook Photos (Facebook’s Photos is actually the top photo-sharing application on the entire web, completely ousting Flickr) to eliminate all loading time for viewing albums. That’s right, you can now click through an entire album in seconds, without a single load time between pictures. They use a new technology called Ajax, and it’s fantastic.

Cheers to innovation and enhanced user experience.

Tags: Facebook by Neil
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I, like thousands of other Facebook developers, have come to the realization that nothing is going to happen overnight. Facebook ads are not going to pour from the sky raining cash on applications far and wide. The money just isn’t there yet.And this post is in response to the discontent and negativity pervading the blogosphere upon this realization.

Just like when eBay, Yahoo and Amazon started their ascent, things are unpredictable. People aren’t really going to bite until there is a proven use and revenue stream for social networking applications. Why advertise on Facebook when click through rates are sub par? Why advertise when you’ll be featured on a small banner alongside “John’s Pants Corporation”. There’s no glamour and in fact at this point it could damage your brand. Blah.

Can revenue be created? At this point, the money is still in the air, but you can secure yourself a future in one simple way. By adding value for your user. I had a short discussion with Jamal Ashraf, founder of 12-million Facebook App-install powerhouse Esgut.com, and among other things, he pointed out that the economy of Facebook is yet to be decided. Every aspect of Facebook, in fact, is under transformation. The only consistency is the number of users, and the consistent amount of time per day (~20 minutes) that people spend connecting. There are 50 million+ users, and if you provide them with value, they will engage. The focus needs to be on something that will enrich their lives in some sort of way.

Why bother if there’s no money? Because $0.00 is the future of business. Large corporations and basement-bound two-man development teams are on the same playing level. Whoever can generate the most creative way to integrate useful products into popular applications will be the winner: Companies that market to and understand social networks and application developers who attract users.

It’s not easy, but seeing the creative ways in which Graffiti plans to fuse with Hewlett-Packard, I think we can all agree that the potential is there. An HP sponsored comment board and the HP sponsored “What Do You Have to Say?” segment. IMHO, that’s integration and positive branding in the social networking world.

Reading the article, we can see that Federated Media also plans to get involved with the massively popular “Addicted to…” series of applications, which all focus on specific TV series or cult followings.

In my opinion, if you want to win out here, stop crying about low click through rates, and start pounding on vendor’s doors, promising them a fantastic way to reach a completely new market.

Tags: Advertising, Facebook, Marketing, Social Network by Neil
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