Suddenly, MySpace has just become one of the largest application developers on the Facebook Platform.

Just a few minutes ago, MySpace announced that it has acquired iLike, developers of the largest music app on Facebook and one of the 15 largest application developers overall by total reach. iLike, as you may remember, famously exploded from zero to two million users in the first two weeks after the Platform launched in May of 2007.

With the acquisition by MySpace, we move to the next chapter in one of the more dramatic relationships between Facebook and an application developer since the Platform has been around. Facebook has long been exploring different ways it could get more involved in music, from working directly with the labels to building its own service to hiring an intermediary developer to manage its music efforts.

Obviously, any decision by Facebook would have a tremendous impact on iLike (and all other music application developers), and as Facebook explored those different options over the past couple years, relations with iLike apparently became increasingly strained.

In fact, iLike CEO Ali Partovi had some seemingly harsh words for Facebook yesterday, telling CNET in an interview, “Twitter and the iPhone are the platforms of the future.”

Facebook wouldn’t comment much on the MySpace acquisition of iLike today. When asked if the deal would affect anything for iLike going forward, a Facebook spokesperson responded:

“iLike was one of the first applications built on Facebook Platform and has become a success with more than 10 million monthly active users. We expect that users will continue to discover and share music through the iLike application on Facebook.”

For its part, MySpace says the acquisition is part of the company’s strategy to provide increasingly distributed services to artists and bands. In addition to being the largest music app developer on Facebook, iLike has also built popular music services on Bebo, Orkut, hi5, and iGoogle. Artists publish content to users of all iLike’s applications via a single “universal artist dashboard.”

Nevertheless, Facebook is still the place where iLike has built the biggest audience, and it will be interesting to see what MySpace does with its newfound access to millions of Facebook users. iLike has created a valuable platform for artists, brands, and advertisers – the company says it is profitable – but MySpace may have larger ambitions to increase its footprint within the Facebook ecosystem. On the other hand, MySpace may be more interested in integrating iLike’s discovery tools on MySpace itself, and/or extending them to other kinds of content as well, like movies or games.

Regardless, things will be interesting. However, it should be noted that MySpace is not the first business in a related space to have a popular application on Facebook. For example, LinkedIn’s Bumper Stickers application serves 5 million Facebook users per month. Nevertheless, it is clearly now the most directly competitive.

Quizzes have always been very popular – maybe even a little too popular – since the birth of the Facebook Platform. Whether long or short, educational or horoscopes, these lists of questions have been taken countless times by Facebook users. However, Playfish is hoping to take the social quiz experience to a new level with its just released game Quiztastic.

Quiztastic takes the visual style of a television studio with each quiz being a game show. As with all Playfish titles, the game feels well produced. The visuals are high quality, the sound works well, and the atmosphere feels very much like a game show.

Of course, making a game look good isn’t too difficult. Making the game actually fun is what proves to be a bit more of a challenge. Nevertheless, Quiztastic is, well, a quiz game, so a lot of it is pretty straightforward. Players pick a category to play from, and are presented with a random test on their knowledge of things such as entertainment, culture, history, friends, and more. If you answer enough correctly to score above average, your QI (quiz intelligence), as the game calls it, increases, and if you do poorly, it drops. This is the key in determining your ranking compared to other players…

> Read more at Inside Social Games

Surfing lifestyle site Surfline.com (as in real surfing, not internet surfing) integrated Facebook Connect about three weeks ago, and it’s already experiencing a swell in Facebook traffic.

On Surfline, surfers can get the latest news, videos, weather reports and information on the best beaches and on where the waves are breaking. There is an amazing amount of content on the site that can be shared via Facebook. Visitors can post their favorite videos, photos or blogs to their Facebook feed for friends to see.

In the three weeks since launching the Connect integration, Surfline is already seeing a pronounced increase in the amount of traffic coming their way from Facebook. July referrals increased 57%, and 38% over the 2009 monthly average (remember, it wasn’t even implemented until July 27th). August is already off to a great start, with trending at an 83% increase month-over-month, and 148% over the 2009 average.

There have been a variety of lawsuits thrown at Facebook over the years, but the latest one coming from five users in southern California seems a bit over the top.

Facebook is being sued by five California residents alleging their privacy rights were violated and personal information was misused. However, from what we can tell, the accusations seem very vague and directed at the core service Facebook provides. For example, here are two claims from the suit:

Plaintiff Xavier O. posted “Xavier O. has swine flu… Please pray for me… God Bless…” Xavier O. and his parents have been unable to learn where the minor’s medical information may have been stored, disseminated or sold by Facebook.”

Plaintiff Elvina Beck is an accomplished actress and model residing in Los Angeles, California… Plaintiff Beck’s digital images have been disseminated by Facebook without her consent, knowledge, or compensation.

Two of the plaintiffs listed in the suit are under age 13, the minimum age for opening a Facebook account. The lawsuit is seeking damages, attorney’s fees and a jury trial, but Facebook doesn’t seem too concerned.

“We see no merit to this suit and we plan to fight it,” Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in a statement.

Facebook has been named in similar suits in the past and come out unscathed. This latest suit doesn’t seem to have much merit, especially given Facebook’s recent steps to improve security and the handling of information. We think this latest suit will disappear altogether – the plaintiffs involved could solve their problems by simply not using Facebook – but we’ll let you know how it goes.

The case is being brought to court by W. Mark Lanier of the Lanier Law Firm.

The Republican Party may not have made the best use of Facebook in last fall’s elections, but If you’re looking to keep tabs on the latest Sarah Palin news these days, your best bet is to become a fan of her on Facebook.

The former Alaska governor’s Facebook Page has experienced rapid growth since her resignation a few weeks ago, as fans rely more and more on her posts to get information about her political views and future plans.

Palin made no secret of her distaste for the media during her final speech as Alaska’s governor, and it appears she’s decided to speak directly to her followers rather than through television and newspaper reports that she claims distort her words.

Palin has amassed a base of almost 800,000 Facebook fans, and it’s obvious that her message is reaching much farther than that. In her critical post on the current debates involving the future of healthcare, Palin struck a nerve by accusing President Obama of creating a system that would involve “death panels.” The phrase quickly caught on with people on both sides of the argument, and the White House even responded to the post through their own online avenues.

PageData: Palin’s Facebook Page audience has been growing more in recent weeks (graph shows new fans per day over last 30 days)

This isn’t the first time a politician has turned to Facebook and social media to further his or her message. President Obama was very successful using both Facebook and Twitter to garner support. But unlike her predecessors that have used social media to reach constituents, Palin is not hitting the political trail or appearing on many television shows. Instead, she is currently relying largely on social media to reach out to the public, and so far she’s succeeding.

Palin’s comments on topics like the “death panels” are eliciting thousands of responses each on her Facebook Page

This may come as a surprise to those that feel social media caters mainly to young people, but Palin has been successful reaching older demographics, which is also testimony to the growing popularity of Facebook among older users.

Facebook for iPhone 3.0 has been submitted to Apple and is awaiting approval any minute now, but we have an advance copy and have been testing it this morning.

Version 3.0, which has been in development for months, adds a number of new features and improvements to what has become one of the most heavily used iPhone applications ever – nearly 12 million people around the world use Facebook for iPhone each month. But without further ado, let’s take a look at all the new features:

1. Full News Feed Interaction, with Likes and Comments

Facebook for iPhone includes the “new” News Feed that’s been live on Facebook for a few months, including comments and likes.

You can easily comment or like on feed items in the stream as well.

Checking out comments and likes in detail is also easy:

2. Full Support for Facebook Pages

One major improvement in Facebook for iPhone 3.0 is the new full support for Pages. Now, you can check out any Page just like you can any personal profile, and Page owners can post status updates or Photos directly from the iPhone. You can also become a fan of a Page.

3. New Home Page Navigation

Perhaps the biggest navigational change to Facebook for iPhone is the new home page. Users are given the following buttons by default, but you can add your own friends and Pages starting on the second page. The new “button array” is a really helpful way to get around the app, and these may be made fully editable in future versions.

4. See Upcoming Events and RSVP

Several new features around Facebook events were added in Facebook for iPhone 3.0. Now, you can view upcoming events, check out details for a specific event, and RSVP.

5. Video Uploading

Of course, many users and application developers will be excited to hear that video uploading is now also included for iPhone 3GS owners. It’s really easy – and behaves just like photo uploading. You can do it right from your profile Page on the iPhone. Here’s how it looks – once uploaded, videos go directly onto your Facebook profile.

6. Complete Photo Management

Now, users can create and delete albums, upload photos to any album, delete photos, and delete photo tags. It’s a big improvement over Facebook for iPhone 2.0, which had pretty limited photo management capabilities. You can also now change your profile picture and zoom into photos.

7. Write Notes and Read Your Friends’ Notes

That about says it all. The interface is simple and there’s no tagging, but you can now post Notes.

8. And More

In addition, Facebook for iPhone 3.0 also adds the ability to:

• View friends’ birthdays
• Visit links in a built-in web browser
• See all of your friends’ friends and Pages
• See mutual friends
• Easily search for people and Pages

What’s Missing

While Facebook for iPhone includes many major new features, some things aren’t yet included in the new version:

• Push Notifications – Lead developer Joe Hewitt says full push support will be included in version 3.1.
• Hiding people from the News Feed – While you can do this on Facebook.com, you can’t yet do it on 3.0.
• Event Walls are not yet accessible – Although you can RSVP, you can’t write on event walls.
• Videos are not yet playable inside 3.0
• The app can only be used in Portrait mode – though Hewitt says Landscape mode is coming soon
• Application Integration – While application notifications are accessible, clicking them takes you into full browser mode inside the new Facebook app. Applications invitations are not accessible.

Conclusion

All in all, 3.0 is a major improvement that makes it easier to interact with friends in the feed, post rich content to profiles and Pages, and navigate Facebook more easily. Facebook for iPhone is a very meaty application – for instance, it also includes full Facebook Chat integration – and there are a lot of valuable little features under the hood.

When version 3.0 goes live, we’re likely to see many more Facebook Page administrators updating their Pages through their iPhones, many more mobile videos posted to user profiles, and much more feed interaction (comments and likes) happening while users are on the go. It’s a great step forward for users and businesses, and many people are already clamoring for more features for version 3.1

Major clothing brand Gap has just launched a revamped Facebook Page focused on its 1969 Jeans collection as part of its notably mostly-online “Born to fit” fall campaign, with several custom applications to give fans a comprehensive and interactive look at the new line.

This fall, Gap is largely foregoing TV commercials, instead betting on a multi-faceted digital strategy that includes its Facebook Page, an iPhone app called StyleMixer, video clips, an online fashion show, and hundreds of in-store concerts. The goal behind the campaign is to “re-energize” Gap’s core denim line which, priced around $60, Gap hopes will appeal to people who don’t want to spend $200 on jeans.

Within the new Gap Faceook Page, you can also develop your own ad, complete with personal information and photos from your Facebook albums. Second, there’s a contest to design an inspirational outfit and your own “Born To” message, with 3 winners receiving $100 Gap gift cards.

A “Custom Fit” application gives fans a glimpse at the entire line of 1969 jeans, with a few videos for each style explaining what makes the fit and features unique. The videos are narrated by the jeans’ creators, like head designer Patrick Robinson.

New ads for the clothing line feature collages based on the “Born To Fit” theme. Fittingly, an application allows you to import photos from your Facebook albums, which are then paired with personal information taken from your answers to a list of questions, and the end product can be posted in your news feed to share with friends.

The ad campaign has combined several successful elements with a clean, easy to navigate Page — the high level of interaction is a good combination of marketing, information and contests. There are already more than 800 entries for the gift card contest, and the page itself has over 330,000 fans. The custom ads featuring fan photos and personal information should serve to spread word of the campaign quickly through viral messaging in news feeds, and the existing popularity of the brand is sure to bring in even more fans looking for more information on Gap jeans.

Gap is working with San Francisco-based AKQA on its fall/holiday efforts.

Ever since Facebook Connect launched late last year, it has brought reliable identity to blogs and community sites for the first time. Because everyone knows who’s talking when a user authenticates through Facebook Connect, the quality of online conversation has increased: more people are commenting, and comments are more authentic.

Over the last nine months, several third party plugins have been developed to make it easy for you to integrate Facebook Connect with your blog, forum, wiki, or CMS tool. We’ve included the best ones below – take a look and find the one that bets fits your needs.

Facebook Connect Plugins for WordPress

• WP-FBConnect – This is an open source WordPress plugin created by Facebook engineer Adam Hupp. It’s very simple and adds login and commenting to your blog through Facebook Connect.
• Sociable Plugin – This is also an open source WordPress plugin. In addition to commenting, the Sociable plugin also offers community features like recent visitors, inviting friends, and sharing comments with friends on Facebook.
• Gigya Socialize – This plugin not only lets users login through Facebook Connect, but also aggregates APIs from MySpace, Twitter, and webmail platforms including Yahoo, Gmail, and AOL. With Gigya, users can log in, post content to the News Feed, and update their status.

Facebook Connect Plugins for Movable Type & TypePad

• Movable Type Plugin – This is an open source plugin created by Six Apart which adds Facebook Connect to any site powered by Movable Type. Facebook users can sign in, comment, and share links back on Facebook.
• TypePad Plugin – This plugin is available to all TypePad bloggers that lets users easily login to TypePad blogs with their Facebook accounts to make comments, share posts through the News Feed, and invite friends to check out the blog.

Blog Services with Facebook Connect

• JS-Kit Echo – JS-Kit Echo is a powerful cross-site commenting package for publishers to let lets users sign in, comment, and share using their Facebook account. Ratings and polls are also included.
• Disqus – Disqus is a cross-site blog commenting system that includes powerful tracking and bridging features. Users can now authenticate with their Facebook accounts.
• RPX - JanRain’s RPX authentication system allows users to authenticate with Facebook through Facebook Connect, as well as MySpace, OpenID and other logins.

Facebook Connect Modules for Drupal

• Fconnect - This is Facebook Connect module for Drupal developed by Vishal Sood. It lets visitors use their Facebook accounts to login and interact.
• fbconnect – This is a Drupal module developed by Xinhui Xu that includes core Facebook Connect features like login, inviting friends, and publishing feed stories back to Facebook.

Facebook Connect Plugins for Forums

• VBulletin Facebook Connect Plugin – This extension allows users to easily login to vBulletin forums through Facebook Connect.

Facebook Connect Plugins for Wikis

• Facebook Connect for MediaWiki – This extension allows MediaWiki wiki administrators to enable Facebook Connect on their sites.

Facebook Connect Plugins for Joomla

• jConnector Facebook Connect Component for Joomla – This is an open source Joomla component that allows users to sign in using their Facebook account. A regular Joomla! user account is created and can be administered as usual afterwards.
• JFBConnect Facebook Connect for Joomla – This Facebook Connect component that for Joomla allows users to register through Facebook and also creates a standard Joomla user and allows for user profiles to be automatically imported into Community Builder or JomSocial.
• FBComments Joomla Plugin for JFBConnect Powered Sites – This is a Joomla plugin that places the Facebook Comments widget at the bottom of articles in selected catagories.
• jwFacebook Comments Plugin – This is an open source Joomla Plugin designed to create a Facebook Comments box below the full article view in Joomla 1.5 articles.

As the Facebook Platform continues to grow around the world, experienced developers of free to play social games monetizing through virtual goods are increasingly attracted to build for the Facebook audience. Recently, we’ve been noticing increased interest from Chinese companies in the burgeoning virtual goods economy on Facebook. Today, we talk with the CEO of one leading Chinese social game developer who’s now investing heavily in the Facebook Platform.

Yong (Patrick) Liu is the CEO of Rekoo, one of the largest social game developers in China, with games like Sunshine Ranch and Animal Paradise running on social platforms like Xiaonei, 51.com, and more. Today, Sunshine Ranch and Animal Paradise are live on Facebook, with more games in the pipeline. We spoke with Liu about his vision for building games for the Facebook Platform and the differences between Facebook and popular social platforms in China…

> Read more at Inside Social Games

Ten months after raising $1 million from Hit Forge, Charles River Ventures, and Bay Partners, Jambool, developers of the Social Gold virtual currency platform for social applications and online games, will announce tomorrow that it has just closed a $5 million Series B round led by Madrona Venture Group. Madrona’s Scott Jacobson led the round and will be joining Jambool’s board.

Since starting out as a developer of social games earlier last year, the company shifted strategy last fall and has been focused on developing its own payments platform and virtual economy tools for social apps and games. Today, the company says it has “hundreds” of publisher partners in social networks and on the web.

The SocialGold platform enables payment with credit cards and bank accounts through PayPal, Amazon, and Google – as well as mobile phone payment in 37 countries through other partners. In addition, SocialGold provides virtual economy dashboards so that developers can learn about payment patterns amongst their users. Which products are most important for the company over the next 12 months?

“All three – payments, currency, and analytics,” says Mike Haswell, VP of Business and Legal Affairs at Jambool. “We will continue to innovate on the payments experience, with deeper and more seamless integrations and, of course, additional payment methods. We’ll build functionality into currency and analytics, both of which are really at version 1.0, over the next 3-6 months.”

However, Jambool says the company isn’t planning on promoting its own virtual currency inside publisher applications.

“We have no plans to offer our own virtual currency,” Haswell says. “We’re focused on enabling developers, publishers, and platforms to launch their own currencies.”

Jambool was founded by Vikas Gupta and Reza Hussein, who led the payments and web services groups at Amazon. The company is part of a burgeoning industry in the US focused on virtual currency monetization and payment solutions optimized for social applications and games. We estimate social network applications alone will do between $300-$500 million in total virtual goods transactions this year.