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Facebook Launches Open Source Initiative

Facebook Opensource

Facebook plans open-source platform to assist application developers.  Facebook said that as the new Platform continues to mature, open sourcing the infrastructure behind it is a natural step so developers can build richer social applications and share what they’ve learned with the ecosystem.

Facebook has announced it will make its third-party developer platform open source which could be a huge step toward breaking down the wall between its site and the rest of the web.

“We’re working on an open-source initiative that is meant to help application developers better understand Facebook Platform and more easily build applications, whether it’s by running their own test servers, building tools, or optimizing their applications. As Facebook Platform continues to mature, open-sourcing the infrastructure behind it is a natural step so developers can build richer social applications and share what they’ve learned with the ecosystem. Additional details will be released soon,” a spokesperson said.

Applications developed on the Facebook Platform would be compatible with any social network that maps its application programming interfaces (APIs) to Facebook.

Facebook has been sending out mixed signals after cutting off Google’s Friend Connect, but it also just announced a feature called Facebook Connect, which lets users access their Facebook identity on any site.

Google Inc. is expected to shed light on its own social technologies such as Google App Engine, for building and hosting Web applications, and OpenSocial, the Google-backed application programming interface (API) for social networking. Continue Reading »

Written on 30 May 2008 by YourFacebookStuff under News & Updates with No Comments
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Facebook to redesign and reduce clutter

Facebook reduces cluter

Having nearly tripled its audience and added about 20,000 new applications over the past year, Facebook Inc.’s popular online hangout is about to undergo a housecleaning.

Visitors who can’t stand the clutter that’s been piling up will be glad to see that the site’s new look sweeps disparate bits of information into categories marked by tabs at the top of each user’s customized home page.

Basic personal background and interests will be filed under an “info” tab, for instance, while news about users’ buddies’ latest activities will land under a “feed” tab, pictures will be corralled in a “photo” section and applications will be easily located under a “programs” tab. That content is now scattered, creating a confusing mishmash that has frustrated some Facebook users.

The facelift, in the works since January, is to debut in June.

Besides tidying the site, the overhaul should give users more control over their profiles, Facebook managers said Wednesday as they previewed the redesign at the startup’s Palo Alto headquarters. Users will be able to magnify information they want to emphasize and downplay other features, for example.

Even so, many users are likely to protest, said Mark Slee, the Facebook product manager overseeing the facelift. Continue Reading »

Written on 22 May 2008 by YourFacebookStuff under News & Updates with No Comments
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Facebook Denies Google Friend Connect, Privacy Concerns

Facebook announced that they have denied Google Friend Connect access to Facebook user data.

The Google Friend Connect service would allow any Web site to have social networking features. This would allow users to go on a different Web site, and access their photos, profile, blogs, etc and update them accordingly.

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Facebook is apparently not up for this idea at all though as they do not want Facebook users to interact with Google Friend Connect it seems.

 

Facebook engineer Charlie Cheever wrote in a blog post that “We’ve found that Google Friend Connect redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service.”

Google has argued that it is not a privacy issue at all, as all Google Friend Connect does is give users full control over their data.

We will have to wait and see how this turns out, but it is clear and apparent that Facebook is not in the mood to connect with Google in any way as of right now.

Written on 19 May 2008 by YourFacebookStuff under New Features, News & Updates with No Comments
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Will Facebook Join OpenSocial?

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This morning, Yahoo announced that it is joining OpenSocial, and along with MySpace and Google, forming the OpenSocial Foundation to “ensure the neutrality and longevity of OpenSocial as an open, community-governed specification for building social applications across the web.”

Additionally, on the conference call executives indicated that Hi5 will be launching its developer platform with support for OpenSocial applications next Monday, meaning that the initiative will soon allow you to build apps that in theory work on MySpace, Orkut, and hi5 – a fairly significant base of users.

Meanwhile, Facebook announced its own set of standards back in December based on its platform, which, Bebo leveraged to allow developers to port their Facebook apps over to its network. In turn, there are now two standards with huge players behind them, with OpenSocial having the majority of partners, but Facebook having the majority of actual applications that people can use.

Will Facebook ultimately sign on to OpenSocial, or will we be living in a world with two (or more) major social networking platforms for the forseeable future?

Written on 25 March 2008 by YourFacebookStuff under News & Updates with No Comments
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Welcome to Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg! Now Get To Work.

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Today is the first day of work at Facebook for ex-Google executive Sheryl Sandberg, who will arrive at the social networking company’s Palo Alto HQ to take up the job of COO.

At Google, Sandberg was the vice president, Global Online Sales and Operations, a major post in which she ran a large swath of the search giant’s ad operations.

Sandberg was responsible for online sales of Google’s ad and publishing products, bringing experience Facebook sorely needs. Previously, she was also the chief of staff at the Treasury Department in the Clinton administration.

At Facebook, Sandberg will oversee a large part of the company, including all sales, human resources, marketing and communications, and business development. Continue Reading »

Written on 24 March 2008 by YourFacebookStuff under News & Updates with No Comments
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