Inside Facebook

Earlier this week, Microsoft and Facebook announced a .NET version of Facebook’s Platform Client Library, a collection of functions which allow for easy interactions between an application and Facebook (getting a user’s friend list, for example).

Up to this point, desktop application developers have had to rely on unofficial client libraries which often got outdated quickly, did not contain exhaustive functionality on par with the official Facebook client libraries, nor had official support from Facebook. You can find the actual Microsoft SDK for the library here.

One element still missing from the “desktop” application picture is a client library for Windows Mobile. While Microsoft recently released an official Facebook application for Windows Mobile, currently featured in their Marketplace, there has not been any word on an official client library for the mobile operating system.

This is in contrast to other popular platforms, such as the iPhone which has it’s own official client library. Currently, third party Windows Mobile developers have had to rely again on unofficial C# client libraries or attempt some sort of direct partnership with Facebook. Given the news of the official .NET library, hopefully Windows Mobile developers aren’t too far off.