For those who have hoped for less application madness on Facebook, an announcement on the Facebook Developers blog should be of interest to you: a reward system for applications that are "compelling."
So, instead of giving applications a limit of 40 notifications per user per day, the amount of notifications sent out will adjust in accordance with the feedback an application gets. The more an application gets ignored, reported as spam, or hidden, the less notifications users will receive. The aim of this little adjustment is to reduce notifications that users will find to be of a "spammy" nature, while encouraging developers to make applications that users will want their friends to know about.
Whether that means that notifications of friends adding or using applications that have gotten a "bad rep" will start disappearing, is still not clear. But, it's reasonable to think that some of the notification "noise" will be reduced.
In the meantime, until the update is put in place, developers will be provided with two new "Insight" statistics tabs, to give them a better understanding of how users are responding to their applications. Users can expect to start seeing changes as early as next week.
On February 5, MySpace will open its system to developers so that they can begin building applications (similar to Facebook applications). MySpace intends to offer advertisement-revenue sharing to developers while avoiding the feed/request pollution that Facebook has.
MySpace will be supporting OpenSocial which is a collection of API's for developers to create applications that run on multiple social websites. The theory is that with OpenSocial a developer can make one application that interacts with different sites (like MySpace, imeem, Plaxo, etc.). So now instead of asking one group of contacts if they want to take your "how funny are you?" quiz, you can ask all of your contacts!
If you want to write apps for MySpace, you can pre-register on their developer site now.
Yahoo! is the next big company planning on opening up its source code, giving application developers more power in creating tools that engage users. The company has already opened up access to their email letting third parties create widgets that access address books and mail services, but is planning on rolling it out on the Yahoo! homepage and other services.
To a large part, the future of successful online services depends on companies listening closely to what their customers think. That's why many companies are handing over the keys to outside developers and letting them run with anything that makes people stay interacted with the site longer.
Yahoo!'s move is long overdue, but at least they are jumping in the game now to make their stickiness factor increase. We hope.
No Apple hasn't finally given us what we want by releasing an official iPhone SDK so developers can create true apps for the phone, but that doesn't seem to be holding back enterprising hackers. Erica Sadun at our sister site The Unofficial Apple Weblog has released a basic text editor and even a screenshot app for the iPhone, while Gizmodo has MobileTerminal, a command line app that should allow for all kinds of iPhone hackery goodness.
Gizmodo also makes a great point: the code for MobileTerminal is being hosted at Google Code, which could mean a number of things, including:
Apple hasn't fired up the cease & desist engine just yet
They are quietly sanctioning this kind of hacking
They're listening to demand and are working on opening the phone up
While we're likely to never hear word from tight-lipped Apple on an official iPhone SDK until it's actually made available to download, power users and iPhone enthusiasts are sure to take some solace in the fact that iPhone hackers seem to have opened it up quite a bit on their own already. We'll definitely be keeping an eye on what grassroots iPhone apps appear.
FreshBooks rolled out their API yesterday, a little early it seems as they were outed by TechCrunch.
FreshBooks is an online tool that users can create, send and manage invoices, track time and accept payments with. This new API will allow developers and businesses to integrate the FreshBooks billing platform into a variety of services and solutions they may offer, allowing for a little streamlining to take place.
The FreshBooks API support materials include an update blog, scripts, samples and examples. There is also a forum to guide developers along the way in creating their timers, planners, and widgets.
The iPhone isn't even out yet and there are scheduled conferences, iPhone specific applications and now an iPhone developer's platform.
A company called Morfik has created a platform that will give developers the ability to build applications on Apple's new iPhone. This new platform is said to be the first of its kind, and usually the first ones to market hit it big with consumers. Morfik has said that its WebOS AppsBuilder will be able to make web applications that are optimized for Safari running on iPhones. Don't have a technically included background? Morfik will also enable everyday users a way to make their own AJAX powered web applications with writing any code.
Web 2.0 is all about mashups, and Microsoft wants to get in on the action. They have set up a new competition where winners can walk away with up to $25,000. The competition, announced at the 3GSM World Congress, is asking developers to create mashups that merge telecommunications features with Web 2.0 applications. So, basically, calling for some applications that weave voice and text with mapping and search features. The winner doesn't only get their share of the prize money, from $2,500 to $25,000 in cash, but if their mashup gets scooped up and released by a telecommunications company the developer could see a chance to share in revenue that it generates.
The first stage of the competition set for March 6th will see developers creating storyboards with written or graphic ideas of their ideas to show to a panel of judges. The winners from this round will move to the second phase which is to build a prototype with winners being announced for June.
June 11-15th will see San Francisco packed with Developers heading to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. The five-day event will see developers and IT professionals attending conference session after conference session about working with the latest Apple developer tools. There will be sessions on choosing and using the latest APIs to make the most of OS X, and how to create mind-blowing, effective user interfaces. Attendees to the conference will get the chance to work side by side with Apple engineers who are responsible for OS X features, ensuring that developers get all of their questions answered from the best possible individuals. This is a not-to-be-missed event for those hardcore OS X developers, web developers, software developers, system administrators, and IT managers out there. Ticket prices range from US$1,295 to $5,180 for a pack of 5 tickets.
Amazon recently released its fourth quarter results, and the fact that developers joining Amazon's web services grows over 55% each year struck struck Larry Dignan. I didn't think that this many developers were into this feature as I haven't heard too much about apps that have been created. We wrote about wrote about Amazons S3 service when it launched in March 2005. The service allows developers to use Amazon's data storage and transfer capabilities for free. There are monthly fees, however, for storing and transferring data, and it can only be accessed by API's. What can you use S3 for? DLS covered S3AjaxWiki, a wiki solely existing on the S3 service. We also gave props to a Python script creator who developed a way to back up Flickr photos.
If you want to add your name to the growing list of developers, or just check out some of the other neat applications people have created with the Amazon Web Services, there are tons of tutorials, tools and code samples. If you have anything to share, or if DLS readers have hooked up with the S3 service to create something interesting, please show off your skills in the comments.
Joe Stagner, Microsoft's "Opinionated Misfit Geek" gave keynote speech on Microsoft's ideas to allow PHP developers to use Windows for not only development but deployment as well. Most PHP developers use Linux for deployment, something Microsoft (of course) isn't happy about. PHP currently runs better on Linux than it does on Windows, which Microsoft hopes to change. Some functions of PHP don't work on Windows either, which is frustrating to developers. Microsoft's .NET framework will be the ticket for PHP developers in the future, as Microsoft and third parties are developing ways to use dynamic languages with .NET. Python, Ruby, and others already have plugins that work with .NET, so PHP add-ons aren't very far away. Yay!
This is pretty huge. Facebook, the #2 social networking site in the U.S., has released an open API that allows third-party developers to "make remote procedure calls to Facebook on behalf of a Facebook user." The current version of the REST API allows applications to get information about a Facebook user's profile, friends, photos, events, messages (but of course requires said user to be authenticated). The API is free to use with a "soft" limit of 10,000 requests per day, and the Facebook Developers site currently provides PHP5 and Java client libraries, though the API could be accessed with pretty much any language.
Update: Commenter George brought to our attention Facebook Friend Mapper, a very cool Facebook/Google Maps mash-up that demonstrates what's possible with the new Facebook API. Very cool.
Y! Answers also gets a write up (Note: Registration required - or just use BugMeNot) in today's Washington Post - looks like the mainstream media has caught up with the rest of us...
The term certainly doesn't roll off the tongue as well as 'feedback', but in this case, that's an advantage. 'Freedbacking', a melding of 'free' and 'feedback', is a new tag proposed by Lockergnome's Chris Pirillo that bloggers can use to let developers know their apps are being talked about. The idea is that by using a 100% made-up term that search engines have never heard of, users who have something (ideally constructive) to say can get their message to developers much more easily. While most companies and developers already have feedback systems established such as forums and email, a public discourse through blogging and the use of a specialized tag brings the discussion to a whole new level.
At least that's the idea. The new tag, while already being put to use, is still in its infancy, so time will tell as to how widely accepted it becomes and how much value the system offers. I, for one, am excited at the possibility of opening the door between developers and their users just a little bit wider.
For those who have hoped for less application madness on Facebook, an announcement on the Facebook Developers blog should be of interest to you: a reward system for applications that are "compelling."
No Apple hasn't finally given us what we want by releasing an official iPhone SDK so developers can create true apps for the phone, but that doesn't seem to be holding back enterprising hackers. Erica Sadun at our sister site 
The term certainly doesn't roll off the tongue as well as 'feedback', but in this case, that's an advantage. 'Freedbacking', a melding of 'free' and 'feedback', is a new tag 
