Most of the list of applications growing by monthly active users this week consisted of photo and Page tab apps. Other than that, there was a dating app, quiz app and Phrases (new), still not available in the United States. The titles on our list gained the most MAU of any apps on the platform, growing from between 547,200 and 12.5 million MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook.

Top Gainers This Week

	Name	MAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	The Sims Social	48,524,129	+12,504,160	+35%
2.	TopFace	5,770,336	+3,204,046	+125%
3.	Static HTML: iframe tabs	53,466,161	+2,808,801	+6%
4.	Welcome Tab	13,165,111	+1,950,142	+17%
5.	Static Iframe Tab	12,537,029	+1,568,973	+14%
6.	Zuma Blitz	5,765,854	+1,532,067	+36%
7.	60photos	10,709,559	+1,335,832	+14%
8.	iwipa: HTML + iframe + FBML	17,542,212	+1,073,374	+7%
9.	Social Empires	6,022,048	+949,895	+19%
10.	Phrases (new)	2,564,661	+815,048	+47%
11.	Static HTML… [Third Tab]	2,232,349	+808,830	+57%
12.	Friends Photos	4,387,983	+787,715	+22%
13.	21 questions	31,229,948	+746,531	+2%
14.	Pioneer Trail	22,503,818	+718,699	+3%
15.	FarmVille	36,420,878	+658,589	+2%
16.	Are YOU Interested?	16,791,208	+627,727	+4%
17.	Mystery Manor	3,581,209	+588,788	+20%
18.	Magic Land	3,672,425	+585,785	+19%
19.	Diamond Dash	12,057,202	+552,615	+5%
20.	Adventure World	924,401	+547,169	+33,002%

TopFace grew by 3.2 million MAU this week, asking users to rate photos of their friends, then publishing the ratings to their Walls. 60photos with 1.3 million MAU seemed to operate similarly and Friends Photos with 787,700 MAU did as well.

Page tab apps were popular this week on our list. Static HTML: iframe tabs grew by 2.8 million MAU, Welcome Tab by 1.9 million MAU, Static Iframe Tab by 1.5 million MAU, iwipa: HTML + iframe + FBML by just over 1 million MAU and Static HTML… [Third Tab] by 808,800 MAU.

Then there was Phrases (new) with 815,100 MAU, quiz app 21 questions with 746,500 MAU which publishes answers to quiz apps to the stream and dating app Are YOU Interested? with 627,700 MAU.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

Here are all the latest headlines from around Inside Network this past week.

Inside Mobile Apps

Tracking the convergence of mobile apps, social platforms, and virtual goods.

Monday, September 12th, 2011

• Emerging Paid iOS Apps: Smule, Amanita Design, Kairosoft & More
• DeNA Acquires Punch Entertainment’s Vietnam Studio to Bolster Mobage Network
• Social Sports App Developer Lionside Possibly Acquired by Ngmoco

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

• Zombie Highway Drives up the Charts After Going the Free Way
• Emerging Top-Grossing iOS Apps: Popular Apps Spike With New Content Updates
• Mobile Analytics Provider Apsalar Picks Up $5 Million in Funding
• Ngmoco Confirms Lionside Acquisition
• Last Week to Pre-Order Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2012

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

• MindJolt Makes Good on Mobile Aspirations With SGN, Looks to Create Critical Mass of Users
• Emerging Top Free Apps on iOS: Paid Apps Go Free and Television Grows on iPad
• New This Week on the Inside Network Job Board: 5th Planet, Wild Needle, Jib Jab and More
• GREE Intl. CEO Replaces OpenFeint Co-Founder Jason Citron as CEO

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

• New Hires in Mobile: EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu Mobile & More
• Staying Independent, Mobile Ad Network InMobi Raises $200 Million From Softbank
• Top Emerging Android Apps: Tower Defense, Pygmies, Ringtones & More

Friday, September 16th, 2011

• Crimson: Steam Pirates Sails Into Charted Territory on the iPad
• Mobile App Roundup: Google, Big Business, Startups & More

Inside Social Games

Covering all the latest developments at the intersection of games and social platforms.

Monday, September 12th, 2011

• BringIt Updates Skill-Based Facebook Mini-Games Service to Include New Viral Feature
• The Sims Social, Zuma Blitz Top This Week’s List of Fastest-Growing Facebook Games by MAU
• GameShow Slot Machines Doubles Its Ways to Play on Facebook
• DeNA Acquires Punch Entertainment’s Vietnam Studio to Bolster Mobage Network
• Social Sports App Developer Lionside Acquired by Ngmoco

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

• Last Week to Pre-Order Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2012
• Join Us at f8 — Inside Network Happy Hour is Next Wednesday in San Francisco
• Ngmoco Confirms Lionside Acquisition
• BrainJewel from TribePlay is a Facebook Puzzle Game Fit for a Pharaoh
• At f8, Facebook Developers Could Get a Smarter Way to Structure Their News Feed Stories

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

• MindJolt Makes Good on Mobile Aspirations With SGN, Looks to Create Critical Mass of Users
• The Sims Social, Zuma Blitz, and Tetris Battle Top This Week’s List of Fastest-Growing Facebook Games by DAU
• New This Week on the Inside Network Job Board: Nubee, TinyCo, Wild Needle and More

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

• New Hires in Social Gaming: CrowdStar, Double Down Interactive, GREE Intl and More
• King.com’s Bubble Witch Saga Joins Facebook Standalone Game Coven
• Google+ APIs Launching Today
• 6waves Lolapps and Electrolab Take Facebook Gamers to Fight Camp

Friday, September 16th, 2011

• Edgeworld, FantaBook Top This Week’s List of Emerging Facebook Games
• China’s TribePlay Goes West for Opportunity, Growth
• Social Gaming Roundup: Raptr, Japan, New Launches & More

Inside Facebook

Tracking Facebook and the Facebook platform for developers and marketers.

Monday, September 12th, 2011

• Page Tabs, Phrases, Quizzes, Dating and Twitter on This Week’s Top 20 Facebook Apps by MAU
• Featured Facebook Campaigns: Car Town & Car and Driver, Einstein Bros Bagels, Best Buy & CityVille
• Badgeville’s Social Fabric Gives Any Website a Facebook-Style News Feed
• SurveyMonkey’s Facebook Page Tab App Helps Businesses Gain Feedback From Fans
• Join Us the Night Before f8 — Inside Network Happy Hour Is Next Wednesday in San Francisco
• How to Use Facebook’s Hidden Wall and Other Page Moderation Tools to Protect Brand Reputation
• Facebook Tests Changing User Account Settings to Send Summary Email Notifications

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

• Last Week to Pre-Order Inside Virtual Goods: The Future of Social Gaming 2012
• New Facebook Platform Industry Hires: Work4Labs, Shop.org, Nanigans and More
• Movies, TV, Soccer, Music, Best Buy, Angry Birds, Zynga and More on This Week’s Top 20 Growing Facebook Pages
• Facebook Officially Launches Smart Lists, and Special Friend Lists That Influence the News Feed
• At f8, Facebook Developers Could Get a Smarter Way to Structure Their News Feed Stories

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011

• Horoscopes, Spotify, Dating, Tabs, Videos, Bing and Yahoo on This Week’s Top 20 Growing Facebook Apps by DAU
• Facebook’s New Subscribe Button Allows Assymetrical Following of Non-Friends’ Public Updates
• Facebook Social Ads Are Not a Test: They Appear on a Majority of the Site’s Page Views
• New This Week on the Inside Network Job Board: JibJab, King.com, TBG Digital, TinyCo and More
• Facebook’s Subscribe Button to Come With Personalized “Suggested User” Subscription Recommendations
• “View Shares” Link Shows Who Has Reposted Any Facebook News Feed Story

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

• Facebook Hires and Departures: Analysts, Engineers, Communications, Client Partners and More
• Facebook Careers Postings: Mobile Apps Analyst, Legal, Tokyo, Recruiting and More
• Facebook Partners With Heroku to Offer Developers Free Sample Application Hosting
• Facebook Locks the Top Navigation Bar in Place as Users Scroll

Friday, September 16th, 2011

• Videos, Dating, Amazon, Friends, Tabs and More on This Week’s Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps by MAU
• Ooyala Social: A Quality Customizable Platform for Selling, Renting, and Sharing Video Through Facebook
• How to Get Users to Repost Your Facebook Page’s News Feed Posts Through the Share Button
• Facebook to Disable “Send an Update” that Let Pages Reach Fans Directly Through Messages
• Facebook Roundup: IPO, 3rd Party Apps, FTC, Passwords, Engineering, Skype, Legal and Minors

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities across social and mobile application platforms.

Here are this week’s highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at TBG Digital, King.com, Storm8, 5th Planet Games, Wild Needle Games, JibJab Media, TinyCo, Nubee and A Bit Lucky.

• Ad Ops Analyst

• HR Manager
• Advertising Account Manager – King.com
• Business Development Director – Central Europe – King.com
• Senior Business Development Director – US – King.com
• Advertising Operations Director – King.com

• User Acquisition Manager
• User Relations Associate
• Recruiter

• Mobile Game Developer (iOS)

• Lead Mobile Developer at Exciting New Game Startup

• Studio Manager
• Game Artist (3D)
• Senior Server Developer
• Senior Game Programmer
• Game Designer

• Technical Game Designer

Facebook IPO in Late 2012? – The Financial Times reported this week that Facebook’s IPO is set for the end of next year, with a valuation of what would be at least $66 billion. But The New York Times said Facebook was on track to go public in the first half of next year. Facebook itself hasn’t made any official statements about

FTC Proposes New Privacy Regs – The Federal Trade Commission proposed rules this week that may affect how children under 13 use the Internet. Mobile web apps are now included in the rules, for example, and so may require parental consent for use.

Update on Case Sensitivity of Passwords – ZDnet wrote a piece this week in which Emil Protalinski found that Facebook passwords are not entirely case sensitive. Facebook responded noting that the site accepts three forms of your password: the original, the original with the first letter capitalized (to accommodate mobile devices) and the original password with cases reversed (to accommodate a caps lock being on).

Facebook’s FBAR – Facebook’s Engineering Team wrote a note this week detailing FBAR, or Facebook Automatic Remediation. These are scripts that detect errors or breakage in servers, automatically removing them from the system, determining the problem, alerting a technician to replace the drive, testing it and re-adding to Facebook’s infrastructure. It now manages more than 50% of Facebook’s infrastructure and is doing the work of about 200 system admins. [Image Via Facebook]

Skype, Facebook Integration 5.4 – Skype released its Mac updates recently that includes a Facebook integration that allows you to IM and connect with friends without leaving Facebook, also allowing you to read/update the feed, comment Like and more.

Custom URLs Available to Anyone – Facebook no longer requires users or Pages to need 25 friends to acquire a custom URL.

Fake Facebook Name Not a Felony – Forbes reported this week that, despite an initial concern that a fake Facebook name could be considered a felony under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, an amendment added eliminated this possibility.

App Allows Cross-Platform Posting – If This Then that allows users to cross-post to dozens of programs for content management purposes, such as instant messaging to your blog.

Facebook has begun notifying Page owners that on September 30th it will remove the “Send an Update” option that let Page admins send Messages to their fans. These Updates often went unseen since they were delivered to the rarely opened “Other” Facebook Messages inbox. Rather than have Page admins waste time using tool that didn’t perform well, Facebook decided it would be best to remove it.

The site can already be overwhelming to marketer, so by stripping out ineffective or broken features, Facebook can get Page admins to focus on tools that build value for their brands. This will keep them from getting frustrated and moving their marketing and advertising dollars elsewhere.

Send an Update is accessible from the Resources tab of the Edit Page admin interface. It allows admins to bulk-message all their fans, or select specific location, gender, or age demographics of their fans as recipients. These Updates were once more visible, but when Facebook overhauled its Messages product in November 2010, it began relegating Updates to the Other inbox.

This sub-tab of the primary inbox is essentially a spam folder of Messages sent by people users aren’t friends with and Events they’ve RSVP’d to. Facebook apparently saw that this Other inbox wasn’t frequently opened. This meant admins were fruitlessly expending effort composing these Updates and relying on them for communicating important information.

Instead of promoting Page Updates to the primary inbox where they might be viewed as spam amongst Messages from friends, Facebook will remove the feature from its Page tools on September 30th. Facebook is communicating the change through headers on the Page Resources tab and the feature itself.

It recommends that “The best way to make sure your content is seen is to post it on your Wall so people see your updates in their news feed.” A Help Center entry about the feature removal adds ”Consider using targeted Facebook Ads or Sponsored Stories to help grow and highlight your message within the Facebook experience.” This change comes ahead of Facebook’s f8 developer conference, where we’ve heard the company plans to introduce new ways to help developers target users via the news feed. 

When Facebook changes so quickly that sometimes minor features are left broken or don’t work as originally desgined due to changes to core features such as Messages or the news feed. One example is Tell Your Fans, which is designed to let admins invite people to Like a Page. However, these invites are rarely surfaced in Facebook’s sidebar and many of our readers have reported errors or poor performance of the tool.

If Facebook wants to be a mainstream marketing platform, it will need to continue making choice like removing Send an Update and streamline its tools to just those that are effective and reliable

The following is an excerpt of an entry in our Facebook Marketing Bible. The full version contains a walk-through of the Share button and View Shares feature, strategies for encouraging shares using your Page’s info tab, and more examples of the best and worst types of updates to add calls to share to.

Making the posts you publish stand out in the Facebook news feed is crucial to maximizing primary key performance metrics such as brand lift, clicks, impressions, Likes, comments, and reposts. Your updates are competing with highly compelling content published by the friends of your fans, so you need every advantage you can get.

Facebook news feed updates by both users and Pages display a “Share” button that lets users repost that update to their friends. Updates that have been reposted at least once display a count of how many times they’ve been reposted next to a link labeled “View Shares”. This link helps posts stand out in the feed and indicates to your audience that other users thought the update was important and its therefore worth reading, clicking or reposting. Its important for you to solicit Shares of your updates so they receive this distinction.

Here we’ll walk-through how the View Shares link works, and provide strategies for how you can attain Shares and the benefits they bring for your business.

For information on how View Shares works, see our article on the feature’s release. The full version of this Facebook Marketing Bible entry contains a walk-through of the feature written specifically for businesses.

Strategies for Taking Advantage of View Shares

Shares have a two-fold benefit for publishers: they generate additional impressions, and they create a social recommendation for the original update that increases engagement via View Shares. Therefore, the more Shares that publishers can attain the better. As such, you should encourage users to Share your posts.

Though you’ll have to lengthen your updates and avoid annoying your fans, appending calls to Share to some of your news feed updates can be a very effective method of attaining reposts.

Some examples of posts you might want to add a call to Share to include:

• Posts promoting tab applications on your Page – “Check out the fun new game we’ve installed on our Page and click Share so your friends can play too”
• Links to buy products from your ecommerce store – “We just launched our new line of purses. Buy them here and click Share to show them off to your friends”
• Links to something special on your website – “We’re streaming a concert from our offices on our website. Click through to watch and hit Share so your friends can hear this awesome new band”
• Sales that users will naturally want to share with friends – “Today only: 2 for 1 t-shirts on our website. Click Share and your friends will thank your for their cool new clothes”
• Giveaways –  ”You and your friends can get caffeinated together for free. All you have to do is click Share on this link to get coupons for a free coffee at any of our stores”

Uses there strategies and soon you’ll be getting plenty of Shares on all your posts, and everyone will know thanks to View Shares.

The full version of this article, complete walk-throughs additional strategies, and tips for getting more Shares without annoying your fans can be found in the Facebook Marketing Bible, Inside Network’s complete guide to marketing and advertising through Facebook.

Online video technology developer Ooyala this week announced its new customizable platform for content owners that want to rent and sell video via Facebook applications. Ooyala Social is just that, with a wide variety of viral and engagement features licensees can include such as live chat, sharing of video clips that can be watched in the news feed,

Ooyala Social is the most engaging social video experience we’ve seen yet. With an inclusive set of payment options including Facebook Credits, PayPal, Credit Cards, and mobile, it could help video content owners turn their Facebook presences into new revenue streams.

We reviewed Miramax’s implementation of Ooyala Social last month. Its ability to let users choose from a variety of different films to rent made it more useful to TV and film studios then Milyoni’s Social Theater app. However, it lacked some important social and viral features found in Milyoni’s app. It turns out, though, that Miramax had simply opted for a more stripped down experience, and that the Ooyala platform it was built off of supports many more social features.

With Ooyala Social, video content owners can allow users to:

• Rent videos for a limited time
• Buy videos, which are then stored online and can be accessed at any time
• Subscribe to an updating series of videos
• Share with friends through Facebook social plugins
• Select between high-definition and standard video quality
• Live chat with other viewers
• Purchase and gift a film to friends
• Leave timed comments
• Watch simultaneously and chat with a specific set of friends by distributing a unique URL
• Begin watching the film on one device or social platform and resume playback from a different device or platform
• Receive recommendations on what to watch based on their interests
• View an activity feed of what friends have watched and shared
• Share video clips that are viewable in-line from the news feed (requires custom Ooyala development)

Turkish video applications, raunchy dating apps, a friend quiz in Chinese, birthday reminders, Amazon sweepstakes, invite friend tabs and custom tab apps were on our list of apps that emerged by monthly active users this week.

The apps on our list grew from between 84,800 and 324,400 MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook. We define “emerging” applications as those that ended with between 100,000 and 1 million MAU in the past week.

Top Gainers This Week

	Name	MAU	Gain	Gain,%
1.	Genç Video	506,959	+324,416	+178%
2.	Fbp	862,035	+132,030	+18%
3.	! Make Luv 2 me !	901,530	+126,143	+16%
4.	Veoh Videos	439,814	+125,304	+40%
5.	21個問題	568,289	+121,775	+27%
6.	Sayfalar için Arkadaş Davet Butonu	885,205	+113,335	+15%
7.	Angry Birds	277,132	+113,118	+69%
8.	Birthday Reminder	379,459	+108,107	+40%
9.	Amazon Sweepstakes	530,605	+105,003	+25%
10.	VideoPro	645,076	+104,933	+19%
11.	Edgeworld	887,982	+104,046	+13%
12.	Invite Your Friends Button for Pages	483,362	+101,669	+27%
13.	Static Tab – Welcome Tab for Pages	290,407	+101,295	+54%
14.	FantaBook	584,802	+96,957	+20%
15.	熱血海盜王	689,060	+95,369	+16%
16.	Fluffy Birds Flash	870,343	+95,140	+12%
17.	Adventure Slots	565,274	+92,616	+20%
18.	Angry Birds Chrome	734,319	+88,732	+14%
19.	Smeet	938,173	+86,244	+10%
20.	Hike FREE Tab Builder for Pages: New Static FBML	715,425	+84,764	+13%

Turkish video apps on our list this week included Genç Video, topping our list with 324,400 MAU while another, VideoPro, grew by 105,000 MAU. Another video app, Veoh Videos, grew by 125,300 MAU. These apps allow users to view, share, Like and comment upon videos on the app, and sometimes auto-post videos to a user’s Wall as well. Dating apps Fbp with 132,000 MAU and the raunchier ! Make Luv 2 me ! with 126,100 MAU were on the list, too.

In the middle of the list were apps that did a variety of things. 21個問題 with 121,800 MAU is an app that asks users questions of their friends then posts the answers to the Wall. Birthday Reminder grew by 108,100 MAU and promises to automatically post to friends’ walls for birthdays with a customizable message. Amazon Sweepstakes grew by 105,000 MAU.

An app that replaces the older function on Facebook Pages to invite your friends made an appearance on the list, too. The Turkish version, Sayfalar için Arkadaş Davet Butonu, grew by 113,300 MAU and the English version, Invite Your Friends Button for Pages, by 101,700 MAU. Then a pair of tab apps, Static Tab – Welcome Tab for Pages with 101,300 MAU and Hike FREE Tab Builder for Pages: New Static FBML with 84,800 MAU, made the list, too.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned next week for our look at the top weekly gainers by monthly active users on Monday, the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

Many Facebook users are seeing the site’s top navigation bar locked to the top of the browser window no matter where they scroll. This floating navigation bar gives users access to their notifications, friend requests, messages, and links to the home page, profile, and account settings at all times. Previously, if users scrolled down the news feed, a profile, or other page on the site the top navigation bar would scroll with it and become hidden from view.

[Update 9/16/2011 8:30pm PST: Some users that saw the floating navigation bar yesterday are now seeing it moving with the rest of the site chrome when they scroll. Yesterday's test may have been designed to gauge reactions from users, with Facebook seeing if users clicked the top navigation buttons more frequently with the floating design.

The feature could be officially launched at f8 next week, though there's also the chance that this temporary test is the last we'll see of a floating Facebook navigation bar. The expansive but temporary roll out is certainly atypical for Facebook, though.]

By giving users access to navigation functions even when they’re scrolled down a page, Facebook may be able to reduce the likelihood that they’ll leave the site when they finish viewing something. Instead, they’ll be tempted to visit another part of the site, especially if they have pending notifications, requests, or messages.

Users may recognize the floating navigation bar as it’s used on both Twitter and Google+. Some might say this is one more way Facebook has followed the lead of its competitors when its comes to design.

Users may also notice that while playing certain social games such as CityVille, their right sidebar that contains the games ticker and ads stays fixed when they scroll. This is not the case on all games and apps or at all window widths, though. We believe the fixed sidebar for games depends on how third-party developers utilize the fluid canvas option released last month, and is not related to Facebook’s cross-site implementation of the floating navigation bar.

The rollout of persistently visible navigation options, along with several recent product releases and site changes, could be groundwork for a more significant redesign to be launched at f8 next week. Rather than shock users by changing many things about the site at once, Facebook may be opting to push changes one at a time.

Facebook tested a design of the news feed a few months ago that removed the Most Recent feed and locked both the top navigation bar as well as the left navigation bar of bookmarks. If our theory holds true, Facebook might be trying to get users accustomed to the fixed navigation bar before it alters the news feed at f8.

It’s safe to assume that removing the second tab of the news feed would significantly alter user behavior and cause some backlash. Minimizing additional confusion by keeping other design elements stable, even if just for a week, could increase the chances of a successful reception.

We’re seeing the locked navigation bar across our accounts, so it may have been rolled out to a majority or all of the user base. If you’re not seeing it yet, or have feedback on the new design, let us know in the comments.

[Thanks to Dan Birdwhistell for the tip]

Facebook has just announced a partnership with cloud application platform Heroku. It will allow app developers to instantly create sample applications in their choice of language environment for free, rather than having to set up and pay for their own hosting right from the beginning. They’ll then be able to test common app functionalities and edit code to create a full-fledged custom Facebook app. Developers only need to pay if their app grows to a “large amount of traffic or users”

By lowering the barrier to entry for app development, Facebook may be hoping to hook more developers on the Platform and increase the breadth of experiences it can offer users.

Meanwhile, Heroku will have the opportunity to convert free sample app developers into customers. Facebook says “we are starting to partner with some of the top cloud service providers”, and there is a Choose Provider step in the flow, currently the only integrated provider is Heroku.

Previously, developers had to arrange local, virtual private server, or cloud hosting before they could begin testing out the capabilities of the Facebook Platform. This may have prevented some developers from getting started. Providing a wide range of canvas, mobile, and website apps that engage users is in Facebook’s interest, so it arranged this partnership to get more developers to choose Facebook over competing social platforms and mobile operating systems.

Now when a new app is created through the Facebook Developer application, a Cloud Services section appears on the basic settings page. Developers can then choose between building in PHP, Ruby, Node.js, or Python and then follow a flow to launch a sample app.

Devs may then explore functionality such as authentication, feed and send dialogs, and using the Graph API. They can edit the sample app’s code to customize features, and configure settings to make their app public. If necessary, they can then opt to pay Heroku for storage, web dynos, worker dynos, databases, and add-ons.

As competition for developers heats up between the major platforms, Facebook needs ways to lure innovative new third-party talent. If the Heroku partnership makes testing out the Facebook Platform easier than iOS, Android, Google+ and other platforms, it can maintain an influx of new apps that drive up time-on-site and the social network’s presence on mobile and across the web.