Facebook Launches Experimental “Prototype” Apps (Updated)

September 15th, 2009

By Eric Eldon

Update: In fact, Facebook has just launched Prototypes. It’s not live for everyone yet (including us), but once it is, you’ll be able to see it as an option in the left-hand navigation menu in the application directory. As we wrote below, Prototypes is a way to find experimental projects built by solo Facebook engineers.

Facebook’s engineering team has a tradition of hackathons — everyone hangs out together and builds experimental features for the site. Those features are sometimes live. And we may have a much easier way to find them, via a new directory that appears close to launch, called “Prototypes.”

The first screenshot about the section appeared last week. But the actual directory wasn’t live. Today, though, Facebook’s official Twitter account accidentally tweeted about the feature, and screenshots escaped into the wild. It looks like there are some really useful in-house apps coming. One is a desktop notifications app, another is a way to find similar posts from your homepage, and the one I want the most is a way to integrate iCal notifications into email.

Facebook has a developer garage planned today at the TechCrunch50 conference. Perhaps we will have an update about these prototypes later today?

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6 Responses to “Facebook Launches Experimental “Prototype” Apps (Updated)”

Facebook Launches Experimental “Prototype” Apps (Updated) | Berita Kita Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
[...] more here: Facebook Launches Experimental “Prototype” Apps (Updated) Categories: Object – UN Tags: app-for- – apparently-been – application – but-once – [...]
A Closer Look at Facebook’s 5 New Prototype Applications Says:
September 15th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
[...] today, Facebook’s Director of Engineering Aditya Agarwal announced the launch of Facebook Prototypes at TechCrunch50 in San Francisco. The apps, all built by Facebook [...]
Facebook Begins Measuring GNH — Gross National Happiness Says:
October 5th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
[...] index. The application, developed in-house by Facebook engineers this year as one of its “prototype” features, measures the number of positive and negative words used in users’ status [...]
Facebook commence à mesure le Bonheur National Brut Says:
October 11th, 2009 at 9:54 am
[...] Brut. Cette application développée par les développeurs fait partie des fonctionnalités “prototypes“, elle mesure le nombre de mots positifs et négatifs utilisés chaque jour dans leurs [...]
Facebook commence à mesure le Bonheur National Brut | MKT planet - News Web Marketing - Nouvelles Technologies Says:
October 12th, 2009 at 4:40 am
[...] Brut. Cette application développée par les développeurs fait partie des fonctionnalités “prototypes“, elle mesure le nombre de mots positifs et négatifs utilisés chaque jour dans leurs [...]
Attention danger: Facebook commence à mesure le Bonheur National Brut | Sacha Dratwa Says:
December 15th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
[...] Brut. Cette application développée par les développeurs fait partie des fonctionnalités “prototypes“, elle mesure le nombre de mots positifs et négatifs utilisés chaque jour dans leurs statuts [...]