Travel search company SideStep is furthering its foray into the Facebook Platform tonight with the launch of CouchSwap, a new application that allows users to offer up their couches to travelers as a cheap form of lodging and to find and rate couches offered up by users in other cities. CouchSwap is the first SideStep product to emerge from the acquired TripUp, a travel social network founded by Sam Rogoway and acquired by SideStep earlier this month.

SideStep, already known for its Trips application (the 4th most popular Facebook travel application) and for acquiring Facebook application Extended Info and developer Trey Philips, continues its exploration into Facebook with CouchSwap, the company’s third application.

We caught up with Brian Stolte, Director of Product Management of SideStep, this afternoon about SideStep’s growing Facebook efforts.

“Historically, SideStep has focused on travel vertical search. Now, we’re expanding a bit. We want to provide ways for Facebook users to share their travel experiences and get travel ideas. Our strategy is to build a network of applications that help you leverage your social network to make travel decisions,” Stolte said.

As for plans to integrate SideStep web properties and Facebook applications, Stolte said the company will be bringing current web functionality into Facebook and current Facebook functionality out onto their web properties gradually. The company is placing a higher priority on stability and scalability now after experiencing some user attrition during slowdowns after the F8 launch.

SideStep’s applications show that the firm is one of the fastest travel companies to innovate on the new opportunities offered by the Facebook platform. We’ll keep a close eye as new types of travel applications like CouchSwap continue to emerge.

[tags]facebook,couchswap,sidestep,tripup,travel[/tags]

Last night, Facebook completely kicked the Audio application off the Facebook Platform, a first in Platform history for an application of this size. The reasons cited were IP violations. Audio was an application that let Facebook users upload MP3 files, share them with friends, and listen to them on the site. One of the fastest growing apps after launch, Audio had about 750,000 users before Facebook pulled out the rug.

The Audio case is a first in what is sure to be a developing IP law landscape as Facebook looks to define its legal role and responsibilities with respect to application developers and copyright holders. Is Facebook liable for copyright violations that occur within third party Platform applications?

I’m not an expert in IP law (that’s why I pay them God awful sums) but I am sure that Facebook does not want to be in the middle every time an application developer is served a complaint. What a nightmare.

At the same time, application developers need some assurance that their apps are going to be deleted just because a high powered lawyer sent a letter to Facebook. While this case is certainly one that did not develop overnight (Facebook had reportedly repeatedly asked the developer of Audio to modify his application before it was removed), Facebook has set the precedent with Audio that it will delete applications that it feels are in violations of copyright law and its terms of service.

As the Platform emerges, new scenarios and questions around user-generated content, application developer liability, and platform provider liability will emerge. Ultimately, however, I predict Facebook will have to go to court to defend its position as merely an application gateway and thus not a liable party for third-party developer behavior. I hope the court finds in their favor, else I doubt the Platform concept can survive.

[tags]facebook, platform, audio, ip, law, copyright, infringement, applications[/tags]

I’ve had no access for the last hour and, “We’re upgrading. We’ll be back soon.” is all that’s on the landing page. Two thoughts:

1) As a Facebook app developer dependent on Facebook reliability, this really sucks, and

2) Facebook should build a more informative and transparent “server down” page.

Update: The outage continues at 11:16am PT, putting this one in the “major” category. (We received our first report that the site was down at 8:58am PT this morning.)

Update: Facebook is back up at 11:30am PT.

Update: We’ve heard several reports of security issues at Facebook overnight. If true, I’m guessing it was more likely a botched push then malicious attack. Since the site has come back online this morning all Facebook links have a tracking code that wasn’t there yesterday, making me think something went awry when Facebook was pushing changes last night.