In the “This App May or May Not Spawn an Anti-Facespace Vigilante Mob” category, we have the random app Fighters’ Club (replete with appropriately-placed possessive apostrophe).

Basically, Fighters’ Club is Poke with an edge–it just so happens to be a hilariously antagonistic edge. In the (cleverly named) FightPoke Central, you can choose to attack your friends (for how much longer?) with any number of blood-drinking, medieval-going, off-telling, or chicken-dancing actions. The only question is, does a chicken-dance require a vengeful hamster-kidnap, or only a simple Mr. T-style? (A Mr. T-style what, you might ask).

At any rate, this Poke on steroids gets a mention for bringing the whole community into a “fight”. If you decide to move beyond simple FightPokes to an all-out battle, a “showdown” is scheduled, and whoever can garner the most “supporters” wins. In my opinion, whoever has kidnapped the most hamsters should just win automatically, but that may be just me. (I mean, if you set a horde of kidnapped hamsters on someone, they have like 10 seconds to live. Max.)

[tags]facebook,apps,fighters-club,facebook-apps,fight,fun[/tags]

While the Facebook application landscape is still in flux, one thing is for sure: there’s a ton of people signing up to learn how to hack on the Facebook Platform. Tonight, the Facebook Developers group surpassed 60,000 members (all fighting their way through terrible Platform documentation :) ).

They have their work cut out for them. Some people are already feeling “application saturation,” and getting into the Facebook application directory is no home run. As the hype fades, I’m expecting to see a second wave of more functional and engaging Facebook apps (to complement the fun ones that will always come and go).

[tags]facebook,developers,developer,dev[/tags]

How many Facebook applications have been created? According to the Application Directory, only 763 are available. If I were to guess, I’d say more in the range of 2,500. To get a taste of what’s coming out of dorm rooms and apartments across the world, enjoy today’s list of underground Facebook apps:

• My Computer – Display information about your computer on your profile.
• Social News – Like Digg, but for your Facebook friends.
• Free Games – Play free games and put them on your profile.
• My Shopping – Share bookmarks and reviews with your friends.
• Countdown Timer – Add countdowns to your profile.
• MySpace Video Viewer – Add video from MySpace to your profile.
• Meez Avatars – Add personalized 3-D avatars to your profile.
• Praise You – Anonymously praise and criticize your friends.
• OneBigMix – Search your friends’ music.
• Ridertech – Connecting riders and locations for skateboarding, snowboarding/skiing, surfing, biking, motocross and wakeboarding.

[tags]facebook,apps,applications,games,shopping,news,avatars,myspace,videos,countdowns[/tags]

What is the end game for apps that work? That is a burning question in the minds of potential Facebook Platform entrepreneurs and investors. Say I’m able to establish a leadership role in a meaningful space. Will Facebook compete? If so, what can I do to stop them from killing me? Will Facebook buy? If so, what can I do to stop them from threatening to compete and buy me cheaply?

Example: is Facebook going to just give up on the music space? I’m not so sure. If Facebook were to make an application acquisition, I bet the first would be iLike. iLike has established a dominant lead in the Facebook music category, which may be the best space to monetize where Facebook does not already compete. iLike has been working with Facebook since before the Platform’s launch, and Facebook has its nose in everyone’s business. Most iLike users are users of iLike’s Facebook app only, so Facebook would have leverage on price.

I don’t think an app acquisition would happen within the next couple months. But if iLike is able to prove that it owns music on Facebook, it may be able to hold out for a sweeter deal.

[tags]facebook,ilike,buy,acquisition[/tags]

While the preponderance of new apps have been developed for use within the Facebook site itself, some developers are also building Facebook apps for the desktop. For example, FriendVis lets you visualize your Facebook friends network, while fbquick and FMenu give you desktop notification of feed items for Windows and Mac, respectively.

One app that I actually use is Friend Photos. It’s a screensaver for Mac OS X that pulls in photos of my Facebook friends for use in a screensaver slideshow. While this may not be a work-safe app (depending on your friends :)), it’s a fun way to see photos of friends that you might otherwise have missed. (Windows users: check out FriendSaver.)

While the majority of the world basically loves the Facebook app platform, whether due to hype-blinding or no, a growing number of users (perhaps necessitated simply statistically) are disgruntled. At least two well-attended groups (here and here) have been created in opposition to the free creation and proliferation of apps, due to a fear that Facebook will turn into the garish mish-mash of design and functionality that is Myspace.

One group has even taken to writing “Anti-Reviews” of the most despised (most Myspace-like) apps, humorously pointing out the (from the perspective of the writer) childish ways in which the apps are generally being used. Top Friends, as you’d imagine, gets roundly chided, for, as it appears, nothing more than being a Myspace feature ported to Faceboook.

Users who feel this strongly about such apps are undoubtedly a majority, and this counter-platform movement is certainly not going to have any long-lasting traction. However, it is interesting to note that here is yet another example of the power Facebook is giving third-party developers in the form of their platform–now their good name is being tarnished (in the eyes of however few) because someone else has decided to add an application they don’t like. The user experience is indeed different, even for one who doesn’t install any apps–their friends might choose to do “horrible” things to their profile.

Facebook is (I think rightly) betting that the benefit will outweigh this potential negative.

[tags]facebook,myspace,app-platform,apps[/tags]

Go to any office on Sand Hill Road in the last three weeks and you’ll know what the buzz in the valley is about these days: Facebook. Not about the company itself, but about the Platform and its implications for venture funded consumer Internet businesses. Is a Facebook app the same as a website or a widget? Is a Facebook user the same as a regular user? Will Facebook threaten application developers?

These are all new, hard questions. As soon as we see one successful exit in the Facebook app world, they will all go away :) Until then, many will remain just as skeptical of Facebook app companies as any widget company on the web today.

InsideFacebook recently spoke with Jeremy Liew, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, to get his perspective on investing in the space.

IF: According to some, the Facebook Platform opens entirely new doors for software startups. Do you see significant new opportunities for venture backed companies in the Facebook Platform world?

JL: Absolutely. Acquiring new users is always one of the key challenges for a startup. As we have already seen, some startups have been able to acquire over a million users in a very short period since the Facebook Platform was launched. iLike in particular has done an amazing job on Facebook where they’ve acquired an order of magnitude more users than they had on their standalone site.

IF: Does that mean you’re more interested in companies building Facebook apps?

JL: We’re not looking to invest in “Facebook companies” explicitly. Facebook is an avenue for customer acquisition that has proved to be quite effective. But there are many other ways to acquire customers, and Facebook should be part of a broader strategy. It can be an incredibly effective tactic, but it is still tactical.

IF: You’ve invested in RockYou (and Flixster, which also has a popular Facebook app). What separates widget companies in your view?

JL: Rockyou is a widget company, whereas Flixster is a standalone destination site that also has widgets. For Flixster, the path to a business model is very clear as they can sell traditional advertising on their destination site.

The monetization path for widget companies is still evolving. The IAB is starting to address the issue of standards in widget advertising and social media advertising more broadly, and I think that this is one of the areas that will need to be resolved before we really see an explosion in widget advertising. For now then, while the widget business model evolves, the most valuable widget companies are the ones that are clearly demonstrating that they are filling the needs of users. In most cases, that’s companies with a lot of users and a large installed base.

IF: Does anyone differentiate between “widget” and “Facebook application” companies right now?

JL: There is a great deal of overlap between the two as many “Facebook apps” appear as a “widget” on a user’s profile page. I think the key is to think about is whether the company controls pages that they can sell ads on (whether this is a page served up within Facebook in an iframe, or on their own site.). The more that this is true, the more that they can fall within traditional online media models and the quicker their path to scalable revenue.

Follow more of Jeremy’s thoughts on Facebook on the Lightspeed blog.

[tags]facebook,vc,investing,platform,jeremyliew,lightspeed,startups[/tags]

Facebook shook up the Internet world 3 weeks ago when it announced the availability of Platform, enabling developers to build applications deeply integrated within Facebook, distribute applications through feeds and requests, and keep 100% of the advertising and transaction revenues generated. Lots of smart people have since been drinking the kool-aid.

As an entrepreneur, the main concern I have about building my business on the back of Facebook is the amount of control I’m giving up to play. As an application developer, I get no Service Level Agreements, and when I look at the Developer TOS, I see:

“We reserve the right to charge a fee for using the Facebook Platform and/or any individual features thereof at any time in our sole discretion.”

I need Facebook to acknowledge the risk I’m taking by building on their platform and give me some reassurance that they want to help me win.

One important way I think they could do that would be to provide monetization tools for my Facebook application. Namely, an ad network and payment processing service. Why?

• An in-house ad network could leverage the deep behavioral and demographic data that lives in Facebook and agency relationships already established by the sales team to deliver higher CPMs to application developers than can be obtained from third party ad networks.
• An in-house payment processing service could significantly simplify payment gateway integration for application developers and (potentially) unify the transaction experience for customers under the trusted Facebook brand (a la Google Checkout or eBay/Paypal).

By providing these tools, Facebook could align its interests with those of application developers, cultivate the application economy, and build new recurring revenue streams. Why wouldn’t they want to do that?

[tags]facebook,apps,applications,monetization,ads,payments[/tags]

There was a lot of buzz in the tech world yesterday about comScore’s announcement of a widget tracking service called “Widget Metrix”. Basically, comScore is now able to tell advertisers and publishers how much distribution widgets are getting in terms of unique viewers.

This is valuable data. But basic widget analytics don’t offer adequate insight to understand what’s happening inside Facebook right now. Because it is such a new paradigm of application use, the Facebook Platform offers new challenges for measuring engagement for advertisers, publishers, and investors.

Some new questions raised by Facebook Platform applications are:

• How valuable is a Facebook widget view (in Facebook, profiles/widgets can only usually be viewed by friends and network members) vs. a blog or MySpace widget view (where profiles/widgets can usually be viewed by anyone)?
• How valuable is Facebook canvas real estate vs. Facebook profile real estate? vs MySpace profile real estate? vs real estate on your own website?
• How much attention are users giving to applications vs. Facebook? What is the value of a Facebook member who has “added” your application vs. the value of a registered user on your own website?

I believe that ultimately these answers will vary greatly by application. Applications that are highly engaging for users and that offer significant new value to friends should be valued differently than applications with similar reach but significantly weaker engagement patterns. I suspect it will be a while before analytics services will be able to offer this level of insight within the Facebook Platform.

[tags]facebook,analytics,platform,attention,widgets[/tags]

As luminaries have noted, Facebook’s Platform represents a paradigm shift in the way entrepreneurs should be thinking about web development and software distribution.

And the numbers don’t lie. Already, in just 3 weeks, 10 Facebook applications have already been adopted by 1 million users. What do you see??

1. Top Friends – 3,940,140 Facebook users

Save time and show your friends some love. Add a box of up to 24 of your BFFs to your profile. Now they are one click away, you don’t have to search every time you want to go check up on them. Now the question is… who is in your top friends box?

2. iLike – 3,264,423 Facebook users

iLike lets you add music to your profile and find your favorite concerts (not to mention see who else is going!). Bonus: Use it to get free mp3’s that match your tastes and try to beat your friends at the Music Challenge.

3. Fortune Cookie - 2,324,063 Facebook users

Is he the one? Does she have a crush on you? Should you take that job? The Fortune Cookie knows and tells all. May all your fortunes come true. (Zero MSG.)

4. Horoscopes – 2,316,441 Facebook users

Whats in store for you? Will today be the day? Find out by adding a RockYou horoscope to your page and get updates every-other-day covering all zodiac signs.

5. Graffiti – 2,184,405 Facebook users

Graffiti lets you draw on your friends’ profiles.

6. Movies – 2,155,894 Facebook users

Rate & review movies, share reviews with friends and meet over 14 million other film fans already on Flixster.

7. X Me – 1,974,751 Facebook users

Tired of just poking? X me opens up a whole new world of action-based communication, for example ‘Hug Her, Slap Him, Tickle Them!’

8. Mobile – 1,887,157 Facebook users

The Facebook Mobile application allows you to view a stream of the latest content your friends have uploaded via Facebook Mobile. It also provides a phonebook view of your friends, and allows you to subscribe to your friends’ mobile content.

9. Free Gifts – 1,240,885 Facebook users

Allows you to send gifts for free! Gifts will be added constantly!

10. SuperPoke! – 1,077,002 Facebook users

Why just poke when you can pinch, hug, tickle, pwn or even throw sheep?

[tags]facebook,apps,applications,top friends,ilike,fortune cookie,horoscopes,graffiti,movies,x me,mobile,free gifts,superpoke[/tags]