Inside Facebook

Interested in creating a Facebook app but don’t want to worry about hosting plans, marketing your app, or even writing the code?  A new service funded and developed by Sun Microsystems might be a solution for you.

Zembly is a new tool that allows anyone to easily create and host social applications that target the most popular social platforms like Facebook, Meebo, OpenSocial, iPhone, and Google Gadgets.  By reusing UI and back-end code and encouraging the crowd-sourcing of app components, Zembly markets itself as a sort of free library for social applications — live and editable code that can grow as users decide to contribute. For those who need a really simple solution, Zembly could be well worth the few minutes it takes to look around.

To start, there’s no downloading or learning of a new language – just go to Zembly’s website and you can start creating an app in your browser immediately.  Zembly already shows results from component providers like Amazon, Flickr, Google, Twitter, and Yahoo as well as pieces of code created by other Zembly users.  All you have to do is click to add one of these elements.

If you’re worried that Zembly may not be robust enough for your needs, try out a sample app called Capital Punishment that shows how Zembly apps look when published. Zembly and its hosting services are free for now and invitations for the private Beta can be found here.