Facebook is now testing a new feature that allows users to choose whether or not to subscribe to Friend’s updates on the Friend Request accept option.

In addition to this option, Facebook is also offering the option to receive updates from certain friends on your mobile phone via SMS text messages, similar to Twitter. Actually, both of these upgrades will make Facebook much more like Twitter.

Historically, Facebook relationships have been mutual, although decreasingly so with all of the privacy settings that have been implemented in the past two years. The recent option to “Hide” certain Friends from your Feed was the last major change of this caliber, although it still entailed adding a Friend mutually and then hiding their posts by clicking them from the Stream.

Apparently Facebook has been cracking down on fake accounts lately, sometimes at the expense of legitimate users.

This may be Facebook’s attempt to prevent more spam and phishing outbreaks in the future, as fake accounts are more than likely the source of these problems. Get the full story from MSN.

Read the full post here

Take a look at the effect in action:

Here’s how to pull this off: First, click on the FB background (the white part) and then press:

UP,UP,DOWN,DOWN,LEFT,RIGHT,LEFT,RIGHT,B, A,ENTER,

Then click somewhere on the page and watch the magic happen… it’s pretty cool, try it!

]]> http://blog.apps-r-us.com/facebook-news/new-about-page-live-facebook-advertisement/feed/ 0 http://blog.apps-r-us.com/facebook-news/new-facebook-application-about-pages-verified-apps-go-live/ http://blog.apps-r-us.com/facebook-news/new-facebook-application-about-pages-verified-apps-go-live/#comments Sat, 23 May 2009 03:32:59 +0000 admin http://blog.apps-r-us.com/?p=139 Last Wednesday morning Facebook unveiled the new look of application’s About Pages, as well as the first 120 Verified Apps to hit the platform. While the impact of the verified app program has yet to unfold, it’s already clear that the changes made to About Pages will allow application developers a few new channels to interact with Fans of their apps.

First of all, application About Pages have now been completely redesigned and now share the same look of Facebook Pages. In addition to sharing the same look as Pages, application owners can now use their app’s About Pages to send out Feeds to all of the Fans of the application. This added option will prove to be invaluable to developers who want to communicate with their app’s Fans.

Instead of relying on sending Updates which nobody reads, or taking the time to code or send daily notifications to let users know what’s going on, developers can simply send out a Feed as the application, say, everytime new missions is added to a game, or when new gifts are added to a gift application. Aside from the fact that these Feeds are much easier to send on a whim and are more effective then the other means of updating fans, sending a Feed will also create a viral effect that will draw more traffic to applications.

As was mentioned above, the Verified Application program was also unveiled on Wednesday. So far the benefits of having your apps verified sound good in theory, but it’s still unclear as to whether or not getting verified will be worth the required $300 fee. It seems as if this latest push is Facebook’s first attempt to really start cleaning up the application directory. The purpose of the Verified App program is obvious, but the implications of app owners using the new Feed feature could have the same results, to an extent. You can be sure we’ll be watching and reporting as it pans out.

First of all, Facebook itself is immensely popular. FB currently boasts over 200 MILLION active users (and growing…) and they’re all communicating on what are some of the web’s most viral channels, so naturally there are an infinite amount of opportunities for making money there. Thankfully, Facebook makes it very easy to do so by allowing regular users to become ‘developers’ and publish applications. Once you’ve built your application you can quickly and easily launch it to the largest and most active community on the internet. With so many users on the site, finding those who would be interested in your app is easy!

The second reason Facebook applications are making so much more money these days is because the options for monetizing have gotten so much better. When the platform first launched, the only real option developer’s had for easily monetizing their applications were banner ads. With the emergence of Super Rewards and shortly after, other similar networks, daily application earnings for everyone who implemented them immediately jumped by ridiculous amounts. Today Super Rewards claims an average of $78 per day 1000 unique daily users across their network, and it certainly seems to be true. We actually see average earnings of around $145 per 1000 daily users across our Super Rewards apps, so it’s not hard to imagine $78 being an accurate figure for the entire SR network. You’ve all also probably heard that very popular applications can earn $30,000 or more EACH DAY. Well, it’s true, and Super Rewards, Offerpal, etc. are what makes it happen. According to Super Rewards statistics, an application with 50,000 daily users will earn about $3900 per day ($78 X 50), and an application with 500,000 daily users will earn $39,000 per day! ($78 X 500) 500,000 users may seem like a lot, but in terms of Facebook’s userbase, it’s not much. In fact, 500,000 users is less than .005% of Facebook’s entire userbase! That’s less than one half of a percent.

With this in mind, it’s not hard to understand why Facebook apps are making more money than ever before: 1. The options to monetize apps are better than ever before. 2. Facebook is huge, and continues to grow, providing a constant influx of potential new users for application developers.

Over the past few months, rumors have been circulating about a possible Facebook Platform payments system launching over the course of the next few weeks. Tonight, we have confirmation from Facebook that while it isn’t planning on launching an entirely new payment service for applications in the short term, it is planning on starting an alpha test to let users spend Facebook credits in Facebook applications in the next few weeks.

Currently, users buy Facebook credits (Facebook’s virtual currency) in the Facebook Gift Shop in order to buy virtual gifts to send to their friends. In the alpha tests that Facebook will start running soon, users will then also be able to use Facebook credits to make purchases inside Facebook applications and games. Developers who accept Facebook credits will subsequently be reimbursed by Facebook for the currency spent in their applications we assume, though Facebook hasn’t shared any more details on reimbursement rates or how exactly the program will work yet.

While there has been much speculation about Facebook’s plans to eventually monetize the site, this is the first time Facebook has confirmed plans to test the beginnings of what some have called a “universal” virtual currency system. Such a system could be a powerful revenue driver for the company, which to date has largely abstained from directly monetizing the sea of applications running on the Facebook Platform, intsead the have allowed application developers free reign in this realm. Estimates from executives at top Facebook application and monetization companies we’ve spoken with estimate that between $300 – $500 milion in transactions will happen inside applications on the Facebook Platform in 2009, numbers corroborated by other reports. Global social network Hi5 launched a similar universal virtual currency program in March for developers on the hi5 Platform.

However, at this time it appears Facebook is not preparing to launch new payment services for application developers. When the new tests launch, Facebook credit payments are still likely to continue to happen inside the Facebook Gift Shop or another proprietary Facebook account management page. Currently, Facebook only accepts credit card payments (Visa, MasterCard, and American Express), but there’s nothing to say that Facebook itself won’t begin accepting payments through additional payment providers in the near future in order to be able to accept money from its increasingly global audience.

How does the Facebook credits test affect other virtual currencies operating inside the Facebook Platform? Clearly, a platform-managed virtual currency presents a long term challenge for companies like Spare Change (recently acquired by PlaySpan) who have created alternative virtual currencies for applications. Facebook credits are usable elsewhere throughout the site (including recent tests around currency gifting and branded virtual gifts) and bear the Facebook name, and Facebook will want to have increasing numbers of direct billing relationships with its users over time.

One advantage that Spare Chamge currently has is the fact that they allow developers access to their API, meaning Spare Change can be implemented directly into Facebook applications.

In the future, Facebook could theoretically expand the use of Facebook credits to any Facebook Connect application as well – not just those apps running inside Facebook. Such a system could be a way for Facebook to help publishers around the web monetize through the Facebook credits system – a big idea but clearly further down the road.

From a business perspective, perhaps the best route Facebook could take from this point is to simply offer a simple cut-and-paste solution to allow application developers to implement their system into a small space on their ‘Earn Page’. Most of the currently successfully monetized applications on Facebook today integrate some sort of CPA/Affiliate offer reward system, like Super Rewards or Offerpal. These platforms allow users to convert CPA offers like email submits, surveys, trials, etc. in exchange for virtual currency in that can then be used in the application. Due to the phenomenal success of these platforms, it’s unlikely that any application developers would ever abandon them unless wholly forced to. In this case it could be expected that a lot of developers would simply find other social networks to build applications on. On the other hand, if they created a simple FMBL button that could be pasted into applications and would pop up some payment options in a javascript window, the only other thing that would be needed from the developer’s end is some sort of postback URL setting for updating the app’s database. It’s pretty likely that quite a few developers would be interested in something like this.

So Facebook has put itself in yet another predicament. By intially allowing complete freedom of monetization to those developing applications on their platform, they unwittingly barred themselves from having complete control of how these apps were being monetized in the future (now). Of course they could make drastic changes to the TOS and force developers to only use their services, but as was mentioned, this would cause an uproar among developers, bankrupt or ruin many, many emerging companies, and simply be a bad thing all around. If there’s one thing we’ve all learned about Facebook in the past year, it’s that they’re pretty keen to keep people using the site.

The bottom line is that Facebook should not try to interfere with the current monetization systems that have evolved due to their inactivity in the past if they want to ensure the longevity of their empire. They should simply add what they can to the situation to allow developers another option for moentizing their apps. The companies that have sprung into existence to handle the lack of monetization options within Facebook apps are not just a way for application developer’s to make money, they are also part of it’s success.

Anyway, for now Facebook is just starting an alpha test with a few developers. We’ll have to see how it goes.

Since this is the first application to be accepted into the program, there probably won’t be much of a benefit as most Facebook users are not yet aware of the “verified application” icon. The program states that “users will see more information from verified applications as we increase their allocations for communication channels such as requests and notifications, and increase visibility of their stories in News Feed.”

While news feed presence was once a significant benefit for developers, it is no longer as difficult to optimize for since all applications can be granted access. Ironically the application has been verified even though it to try to trick users into inviting their friends. On multiple instances users are instructed to classify friends as “classmates” by inviting them to the application, the first time being when they load the application.

There are some interesting features of the Coursefeed application too. Users can sync their current courses via their Blackboard accounts. Additionally, users can access free course content offered through the open courseware program. Many Facebook developers have already registered to have their applications verified and this appears the first to have been approved so far.