While there was certainly a lot of media coverage around Facebook’s decision to revert its terms of service a couple of weeks ago, few Facebook users decided to leave Facebook because of the concerns, according to data released by Compete.

While user visits to the Terms of Service document more than tripled in the week before Facebook announced its new Terms of Service governance process, account deactivations only rose slightly above their normal levels:

While this is third party data (and thus pretty rough), it does generally show that relatively few Facebook users were so concerned by the events of the past few weeks that they decided to deactivate their accounts. After Facebook reverted its terms to the old version and announced the new site governance process, these metrics went back to normal.

Facebook has just released a new chat invite API that allows developers to let users send application invitations to their friends via Facebook Chat.

Here’s how it works:

1. After embedding the fb:chat-invite FBML element, users will see a list of their Facebook friends that are online and available to chat. (Like with Facebook’s multi-friend selector, developers can choose which friends should or shouldn’t appear in this list.)
2. Users select a friend to send a Facebook chat invite to.
3. The recipient receives the invite through a Facebook chat message that pops up on their screen.

This is a new viral channel that should convert very well for developers due to:

1. The prominence of invite delivery. Unlike regular application invites, which go into the general requests inbox, chat invites pop up on the recipient’s screen instantly.
2. The social pressure to respond to chat messages in real time. If your friend wants to talk to you and knows you’re online, it’s awkward to ignore them. The same dynamic will apply to application chat invites.

The new API should both make for new kinds of interactions in applications and lead to application growth. Now, users can invite their friends to play live games or participate in a discussion much more easily than before. For example, check out Pet Society’s “Live Gifts” in the screenshot above.

If you use iframes, Facebook says you can wrap this tag in some FBJS. Facebook also says there will be an XFBML version available soon.

Recently, I was selected to be a judge in Bebo’s B.E.S.T. Developer contest.  Over 2,000 applicants participated, and after 2 months, 18 were selected by Bebo to be judged.  Frank Gruber, Dave McClure, and I (Jesse Stay) all had the opportunity of trying out each one and judge, based on various criteria, what we thought of them.  The results were all tallied up by Bebo, and the top 5 were announced at an awards ceremony.  Those included Kickmania, Banana Grams, Robokill Trainer, and Solid Sudoku. The winner, Bowling Buddies, by Playfish, deservedly won Grand Prize due to it being a very engaging and visually appealing app with functional UI.

As a social app developer, and author of O’Reilly’s FBML Essentials, I’ve been through these contests before as a participant, often with a blind eye towards what the judges would look for and how I could get their attention.  After all, in this particular contest, over 2,000 applications were competing for the top prize, but in many Facebook competitions there are 10 times that.  You’re a needle in a haystack to the judges.  I thought, after experiencing this and a few other judging opportunities, that I’d share a little on what catches our, as judges, attention:

1. Functionality – I’m starting with the essentials, and they were very important in the judging process for this particular contest.  Functionality was key.  Believe it or not, even some of the top 18 finalists that we judged still had major flaws, bugs, and issues with functionality. Some apps took several tries to get working after install. Others had bugs within the app itself. I understand you didn’t have much time to write it, but neither did any other developer in the contest, and time is not on the Judges’ side either. That brings me to #2.

2. K.I.S.S. – Keep it Simple, Stupid! There were a few apps that didn’t even have About pages. As a Judge, this is crucial. Remember, some of the judges (those at Bebo, or Facebook, or whatever the host of the contest is) are going through thousands of apps. Others, like me, are going through just 18, but even 18 is a lot to go through on an already very busy schedule. (They don’t call Dave McClure “Master of 500 Hats” because he sits around and judges contests all day.) Your About page is your cover letter – if the Judge never even tries your app, what do you want them to know about it?

Keep your apps very simple, but fun, engaging, and useful. The more you can fit into a small package without being overwhelming, the better. Make it as easy as possible for the judges to get through most of your app, very quickly, and easily.

3. Visual Appeal – Those apps that were a little more appealing visually caught my attention more than those that didn’t. As an app developer myself this doesn’t matter as much to me, but I did find myself sticking around on apps I could “feel good” in a little longer than those that didn’t spend as much time on visual appeal. It made me feel like the developers cared a little more if they invested in a graphic designer to design their application.

4. Engagement – I highly recommend you try out the 5 apps above.  I rated I think every one of them pretty high, and the Grand Prize winner was definitely my favorite.  Bowling Buddies drew me in – in fact, I wrote on Twitter at the time I was playing it, “The good apps in this contest really suck you in.” I liked it so much and was having so much fun playing it I wanted to share it with others and even brought my 6 year old son over to play it with me. I really wanted to tell others about it.  Spend some time having your friends and family play your app – do they share it with their friends (and not because you sent it to them)? How long do they spend playing it?  Think about the types of things your buddies at work send to you and would waste work hours on (seriously). Engagement is very important.

5. Virality – I was very surprised that some of the apps we judged did not make it very easy for me to share with my friends.  Virality is key, and central to the success of any social application. Your application should sell itself.  Your users are your new sales and marketing staff, and best of all, they don’t cost you anything! Make your app engaging enough to make me want to share, and when I want to share, make it as easy as possible, at as many points in the app (without being spammy) for me to share it with my friends. A good judge of social applications will notice this.

6. Get to know the judges – This isn’t an exact science.  The three judges for Bebo’s contest were announced ahead of time.  Our names are all over the place, and we’re all on Twitter, Facebook, and Bebo.  It’s very easy to learn about us, what types of things we like, the quirks we hate in applications, and the types of innovation we’re looking for.  Take advantage of that to get to know the judges ahead of time.  I don’t think a single app developer tried to chat with me and get to know me during this contest. While I probably would not have let it influence me, it could have given them some useful information on what I’m looking for.  This isn’t the case for all contests, so tread lightly (it could backfire), but at the very least, get to know who will be judging your app.

As for me? I was looking for the most useful apps that could be viral and engaging. I like things that change the world, things I haven’t seen before but catch my eye. Surprisingly not many I judged did that, and perhaps that was rightly so since Bebo does target more of an entertainment demographic. With the short timeframe it’s also hard to do that, which I understand. Perhaps yours could have been one of those?

7. Read directions – In this contest, Bebo laid out their instructions clearly.  I don’t know if they turned any apps down due to not following directions, but I bet they did, and you would never have heard of it. Read all the contest rules ahead of time, read them twice, and be sure your application follows them, to a tee, when you submit your application to the contest.  If it does make it through, the judges will notice, and then you’re just wasting the judges’ time at that point.

8. Be original! – Remember that as judges, we’re looking at many applications.  Therefore, those that stand out will be those that haven’t been done before.  I was very impressed, and amused at the Kickmania app, due to the originality of it all, and how at the same time it sucked me in and was very viral. While perhaps not something that would change the world, it was very original in the idea, something I had never seen before, yet wanted to play over and over again. Surprisingly, Bowling Buddies was the same way – while Bowling itself isn’t very original, the way they crafted the Bowling game and the way you play it I thought was very original.

This was a fun contest to judge, and I learned a lot from it. How you craft your application and the amount of time you spend paying attention to these details will make or break your application in these contests.  If you can follow these 8 steps, your chances of being noticed will go up 10-fold.  Congrats again to the winners!

Facebook announced yesterday that it is merging user profiles and fan profiles starting now and allowing users to make their updates public if they so choose at some point in the (presumably not too distant) future.

One major possible result of these changes? The creation of a vast new public timeline (a la Twitter) that would allow marketers, developers, and researchers to get a global view on what people are (publicly) saying and sharing on Facebook in a very detailed way for the first time ever.

If Facebook were to open APIs similar to Twitter’s, a public timeline would enable an entirely new class of real-time Facebook applications designed to mine the rich data that’s flowing through Facebook all the time:

• Search
• Content discovery
• Content aggregation/management
• and so on…

Such a tool could obviously be used by marketers and application developers to understand what users are publicly saying about their brand and sharing through Facebook applications, respectively. An entire ecosystem of such tools has been developed to monitor the Twitter timeline for people in public relations.

Will Facebook turn on a public timeline, and if so, when? I don’t know, but it seems like Facebook is moving with a lot of momentum down the real-time stream path. As Mark Zuckerberg wrote today:

As people share more, the timeline gets filled in more and more with what is happening with everything you’re connected to. The pace of updates accelerates. This creates a continuous stream of information that delivers a deeper understanding for everyone participating in it. As this happens, people will no longer come to Facebook to consume a particular piece or type of content, but to consume and participate in the stream itself.

David Recordon, one of the most dedicated advocates of open technology movements like OpenID (which Facebook officially joined last month), said yesterday he expects that, “By the end of the year Facebook will become the most open social network on the social web.” Perhaps a public timeline will be a part of that progression.

After Facebook’s press event yesterday announcing public profiles and the real-time home page “stream,” I briefly chatted with Mark Zuckerberg about the future of sharing on Facebook. Essentially, Mark said things are headed toward a hybrid model in which some information shared by users can be private and some information shared by users can be public, depending on users’ preferences.

This direction means users will need to think in new ways about sharing on Facebook. Historically, sharing on Facebook has been managed through Facebook’s robust privacy settings, with most of the default settings being set relatively strictly (usually limiting access to most information to others in your school or regional networks). Now, Facebook users will also have the option to easily share some information much more openly – even completely publicly for the whole world (and search engines) to see if they so choose.

While Zuckerberg said Facebook is still working on the user interface that would make such sharing settings robust and easy to use, these changes are going to have significant implications for the nature of sharing on Facebook.

Whereas to date sharing on Facebook has been largely symmetrical (or bi-directional between two people), now it could become increasingly asymmetrical (you’re following U2′s updates, but U2 is not following yours, and so on). This means that the characteristics of the average piece of information showing up in the stream is going to change: whereas to date Facebook users have seen private updates from their real friends (at least in the confirmed bi-directional relationship sense) in the stream, now users might see a mix of private friend updates, public friend updates, and public fan updates.

For example:

• Private friend update: “Jenny just posted photos from her trip to grandma’s house this weekend: [1] [2] [3]“
• Public friend update: “Jonathan New blog post: My Favorite New iPhone Apps”
• Public fan updates: “Bobby Jindal just added a new video”

What implications will this have for the culture of sharing on Facebook?

I don’t know how exactly Facebook is going to blend these types of updates in the stream, because neither the new home page nor updated privacy controls have been launched yet. A lot depends on how it’s executed.

But while Facebook is certainly a unique case, Twitter is probably the closest analogy as an asymmetrical communication platform – though MySpace is certainly relevant in many ways too. Will Facebook become more like Twitter in terms of why information is sometimes or often shared?

It will be interesting to see how Facebook users adapt their information sharing habits given the new more open ways that information will flow across Facebook.

Facebook earlier this morning announced that all Facebook business Pages are undergoing a major redesign. In fact, the “Pages” name is going away altogether – they’re now going to be called “public profiles.”

To get a sense of what the changes mean for marketers, businesses, and individuals hoping to gain as many “fans” (followers) as possible, here are “before and after” shots from 7 major brands and public figures that were part of Facebook’s “public profile” launch today that should give you an idea of where Pages are going. Check out before and after shots for Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Michael Phelps, The New York Times, U2, Ashton Kutcher, and Sarah Palin below.

As you can see, the new Facebook “public profiles” for businesses look almost exactly like Facebook profiles and are focused on the stream, status updates, and wall. The new public profiles are built for brands (corporate and individual) that are ready to converse with their fans inside Facebook. For further details on the exact changes to Pages and what they mean for marketers, see our earlier coverage.

Oprah’s Old Facebook Page

Oprah‘s New Facebook “Public Profile”

Barack Obama‘s Old Facebook Page

Barack Obama‘s New Facebook “Public Profile”

Michael Phelps‘ Old Facebook Page

Michael Phelps‘ New Facebook “Public Profile”

The New York Times‘ Old Facebook Page

The New York Times’ New Facebook “Public Profile”

U2‘s Old Facebook Page

U2‘s New Facebook “Public Profile”

Ashton Kutcher‘s Old Facebook Page

Ashton Kutcher‘s New Facebook “Public Profile”

Sarah Palin‘s Old Facebook Page

Sarah Palin‘s New Facebook “Public Profile”

Facebook is launching a redesigned home page next week focused on the Live Feed. What does this mean for application developers?

1. Increased News Feed distribution for application stories

The most important implication of the redesign is application feed stories published through Feed Forms are now guaranteed to be displayed on their friends’ home page, we understand.

If users share it, their friends will see it. That’s a big deal for developers trying to maximize the exposure of their feed stories in the News Feed. (One line updates will most likely not get syndicated to the News Feed.)

In other words, there is now a greater incentive for developers to provide compelling ways for users to share application information through Feed Forms on their Walls.

Two weeks ago, Facebook shared prelimiary mocks about the future of News Feed at the Palo Alto Developers’ Garage. There, Facebook began encouraging developers to start thinking about feed stories less as “third party journalistic news” and more like “first person updates.”

Facebook said that updates to Feed Forms will be coming soon where users will be prompted to add comments before publishing feed stories. It looks like the new Live Feed will show feed items in this new way whenever users add comments, so developers should encourage it.

2. Application bookmarks go away, application feed filters arrive

In the current Facebook home page, up to 6 application bookmarks exist on the right side of the page. However, in the redesigned home page, those bookmarks are no longer present, which will probably ruffle developers. The applications menu still exists in the menu bar on the bottom of the page.

However, Facebook has also added application News Feed filters on the left side of the page, under the friend list filters. Presumably, Facebook will show the apps that users share most with by default. Clearly, Facebook is increasing the emphasis on and incentives around sharing through applications with this update.

3. Application tabs for business profiles

Now that Facebook is merging business Pages with Facebook profiles, the way that applications can integrate with Pages is changing. Now, instead of integrating big custom boxes on the Page, Pages will default to a “Wall” tab which will be full of status updates and the other latest updates.

However, Page owners can now add custom application tabs to their profiles, which provide more real estate for applications. While application tabs will not be the default tab users see when they navigate to a business page organically, Page owners CAN drive traffic to application tabs through Facebook Ads. This means that application tabs could become the new “microsites” for businesses wanting to engage users within Facebook.

Today, Facebook announced that, as expected, Pages and Profiles are blending in what Facebook is calling “Profiles for Everyone.” Launch partners, which will go live today, include CNN, U2, Barack Obama, Michael Phelps, Ashton Kutchen, Lance Armstrong, The New York Times, and the NBA. All Page owners will be invited to “migrate” their Pages over to the new design in the next few weeks.

For more details on all the specific changes for Page owners, see Inside Facebook’s previous coverage. Essentially:

1. Pages “2.0″ now look a lot like Facebook profile pages: the Wall is front and center, and almost everything else (including custom HTML and application boxes) is moving to secondary tabs.
2. Pages will now have a powerful tool previously only available to Facebook profiles: Status Updates. Status Updates have the potential to become a VERY powerful tool for marketers large and small.
3. Activity from Pages you’re a fan of will now prominently appear in your home page News Feed. This means you’ll see updates from Pages you’re a fan of mixed in with updates from people you’re friends with.

“We think that all entities should have equal access to the social graph and do the same types of things. Over time, we’re going to bring these into parity. We want to make it so that people who have profiles can broadcast updates to all their friends” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said.

At some point soon, Facebook profile pages will now be able have more than 5000 friends.

Zuckerberg said that previously the company didn’t allow users to have more than 5000 friends due to concerns that Facebook would be overrun with spam. It will be important for Facebook to negotiate the News Feed filtering controls appropriately.

“Politicians, journalists, and bands all want to share what they do. We have a system for distributing information, and we want to remove limits for people with a lot of constituents to share,” added Facebook’s Chris Cox.

While Facebook didn’t announce any new advertising or monetization products around the Pages redesign, Zuckerberg did say, “The world is becoming more open, and that is something that is going to drive our business.”

Today, Facebook announced that the News Feed, which has long been the most powerful way for users to discover updates from their friend on the site, is going “Live.” In addition, users will be able to filter the changes, most prominently according to friend lists.

The new home page consists of 4 primary elements: the Stream, Publisher, Filters, and Highlights.

Stream - The stream looks a lot like the current News Feed, with 2 important changes:

1. It will be updated in real time.
2. Feed items will be restructured more around the first person voice.

Filters - The home page will prominently feature “friend list” filters. This gives friend lists much more prominence in the Facebook experience than they have before, and makes it easy for users to filter their News Feed by friend list.

Highlights - On the right side of the page, Facebook will post “highlights” it selects. These updates will be “top” feed stories like those Facebook previously chose to show in the old News Feed, “based on what your friends have interacted with.”

Publisher - The “publisher,” or place where users can post information, remains at the top. Buttons allowing users to easily post other types of content will remain as well.

Notably, the application bookmarks are no longer in the same place on the right side of the page, but application News Feed filters are now on the left side of the page, under the friend list filters. The applications menu still exists in the menu bar on the bottom of the page.

We’re here at the Facebook press event with live updates on this morning’s announcements. Mark Zuckerberg and Chris Cox, Director of Product, will be presenting.

Zuckerberg: Over the past few years, we’ve made products that make it easier for people to share more information from more devices all the time. We hit an inflection point around 2006 where use of the site became primarily based on updates that were going on with people at that time, and that trend is going to continue happening. Today, a lot more sharing is happening through streams, and this will continue in the future. We think other companies doing things like this including Twitter and MySpace are doing really good things. Today, we’re announcing some steps we’re going to take in that direction.

Chris Cox: News Feed was the reason I came to Facebook. Mark was talking about the News Feed as a way to get a personalized newspaper about all the things your friends are doing every day. Today, I’m going to discuss where we’re going with our product strategy in 2009 and two new products we’re going to be rolling out.

When you think about different media, each one changes the scale and the pace with which people communicate. New institutions arise when new media arise. In the beginning, Facebook was a lot like an American class book. Then, we built News Feed, because we noticed that people were really interested in seeing what had changed with their friends’ profiles. In 2007, we realized that applications were putting a lot of the content in that stream every day, so we invited application developers to build on top of the Platform. In 2008, we redesigned the profile around the Wall. When we launched this, engagement on the site went up, and people shared more.

There are lots of different types of objects on the site. There’s me, there’s my friends, family, coworkers, and public profiles (Pages). In 2009, we’re really focused on getting things super simple and flexible. For the stream, this means making it easier to filter. Today, we’re announcing “Profiles for Everyone,” and a redesigned home page.

For more details, see our additional coverage:

• Facebook to Launch Redesigned Home Page – News Feed Going “Live” Next Wednesday
• Facebook to Blend User Profiles and Business Pages Into “Profiles for Everyone”