We’re at the San Francisco Design center, blogging Inside Network’s third annual Inside Social Apps conference. Founder of Inside Network Justin Smith sat down with Facebook Director of Software Engineering Cory Ondrejka for a fireside chat called “The Future of Mobile App Discovery on Facebook.”

Ondrejka emphasized the value of building HTML5 apps that users can access from any device and how integrating Open Graph will allow users to share their activity without interrupting gameplay.

Ondrejka revealed that half of Facebook’s mobile traffic comes through the mobile website and the other half comes from native applications. He said that the company spent much of 2011 improving its mobile touch site and integrating web technology in its native applications. For example, the iOS and Android apps now pull News Feed stories directly from m.facebook.com so Facebook’s engineers can push design and backend changes without a software update.

“The trend of wanting the web to work really well is something that’s happening,” Ondrejka said. “It’s incumbent on us to write good code, show good examples and make it easy to integrate.”

Although Ondrejka encouraged HTML5 development for cross-platform access, he acknowledged that some apps will require advanced capabilities that are only possible as native experiences. Still, Facebook’s distribution channels function the same for web and native apps.

“The important thing about our platform at this point is that we want all of these to integrate with Open Graph,” he said.

Because the company filed for an initial public offering last week, Ondrejka was unable to discuss possible plans for advertising apps within Facebook’s mobile experiences. He instead focused on the organic channels that are available to mobile developers: Open Graph activity in News Feed and Timeline, app bookmarks and requests.

Facebook apps can now publish continuously to Timeline and Ticker, which Ondrejka said will improve the gameplay experience. The strategy seems to be increase engagement by making games more enjoyable and organic discovery will follow.

“What Open Graph allows you to do is share in this non-interruptive way without saying ‘Hey, player, stop playing to issue a request’ I hope it opens up game design as broad as on other devices,” he said.

Ondrejka cited Pinterest and Washington Post Social Reader as good examples of how mobile apps can utilize Open Graph for discovery.

We’re at the San Francisco Design center, blogging Inside Network’s third annual Inside Social Apps conference. The final panel of the day focused on how marketers and brands can use social apps to maximize audience engagement.

Joining moderator Josh Constine, of Techcrunch, were Context Optional CEO Kevin Barenblat, Buddy Media Senior VP Carla Bourque, Facebook Page Product Manager Russ Heddleston, Starz Media VP of Digital Media David Katz, Hearsay Social CEO and Starbucks Board Director Clara Shih.

All of the panelists agreed that building mobile experiences and applications is becoming increasingly important for brand marketers. Shih, of Hearsay Social, and Barenblat, of Context Optional, said that developing application experiences that involve the user being physically present at a retail store have potential for both marketers and developers. Bourque, of Buddy Media, said her company’s mobile focus was primarily on enabling social commerce at scale and driving conversions.

While panelists agreed that building applications for mobile will be increasingly important, their take on building Open Graph applications was mixed. Shih, of Hearsay Social noted that for lifestyle brands, Open Graph represents a significant opportunity because of its ability to connect identity to brands and products. For small or local brands and companies, or those outside of the lifestyle space, Open Graph might not be a good fit. The consensus was that developers and marketers should focus on testing new ideas and generating success at a small scale in order to demonstrate impact, and build upon that.

When asked about the future of page tab applications, and whether they will become mobile compatible at some point in the future, Heddleston, of Facebook, did not make any definitive statement. He reinforced the importance of mobile in Facebook’s overall strategy and noted, “We haven’t yet come out with a separate solution for tab applications for mobile, it’s something we’re looking into, and something that would make sense.”

The panelists discussed some of the factors that go into deciding whether businesses should develop custom applications for their page or work with platform templates. The general consensus was that custom development might not be cost-efficient for some companies, but business objectives should ultimately drive the decision. Shih, of Hearsay Social, said that she’s seen a 50-50 split among larger clients — half begin with a template from Hearsay’s app gallery and half are completely custom experiences developed by another digital agency.

As far as brand integration within existing apps, such as popular social games, the panelists emphasized how distribution and engagement are key things brands should look for before spending money on placement. Katz, of Starz Media, said he especially looks for examples of what an app developer has done before and wants to know that a company has delivered results for similar brands in the past.

Facebook Director of Product Management Carl Sjogreen revealed that more than 60 million monthly users engage with mobile applications via Facebook, 320 million times per month since the mobile platform launched in October 2011. Sjogreen shared this statistic during a fireside chat with Founder of Inside Network Justin Smith at the Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco.

[Update 2/9/12 12:47 p.m. - An earlier draft of this story was unclear that the 60 million users who engage with apps on Facebook's mobile application are monthly active users.]

This means that 60 million users navigate to either mobile web or native applications that integrated with Facebook each month, and these users engage with apps roughly five times per month. With 425 million monthly active users who access the social network via mobile, this also means that roughly 14 percent of Facebook’s mobile users engage with third-party apps directly from the mobile platform. The company has not offered numbers on how many of its 425 million mobile users have smartphone devices that are capable of running third-party Facebook apps.

When asked about the value proposition of HTML5 to application and app developers, Sjogreen said, “We don’t really care whether developers build for mobile web or native apps,” noting that in his view, the decision is not either-or. Instead, Sjogreen made the point that ”The people you want to play with trump whatever the platform the app is on. If your fundmental gameplay revolves around interacting with friends, then being cross platform is really important.”

Many developers face a dilemma. They can develop native apps for iOS and Android, which can include advanced functionality and graphics, but are often more costly and difficult to maintain. Alternatively, developers can build HTML5-compatible mobile web applications, which lack some of the advanced features of native apps, but can accessed on any platform, which significantly reduces development costs and enables all users to access their apps.

Sjogreen’s comments reinforce that Facebook will support all developers, but emphasizes cross-platform compatibility as an increasingly important factor to consider. This makes sense in the context of building social applications where users interact with friends across different platforms and devices. For app distribution and notifications through Facebook to work effectively for users, apps need to be accessible on whichever device an individual is using at the moment they receive a notification or see activity in News Feed or Ticker.

For more coverage of Sjogreen’s fireside chat from Inside Social Apps today, see our liveblog summary here.

U.K. mobile billing and analytics provider Bango announced today it signed a deal “to provide payment services to Facebook.”

The arrangement could be part of an upcoming effort to monetize Facebook’s mobile platform. The social network has 425 million monthly active mobile users but so far does not generate “meaningful” revenue from this area, according to its filing for an initial public offering. Facebook might have tapped Bango to help it process payments for apps, virtual goods or other mobile transactions.

Bango did not reveal the terms of the agreement. Facebook, which is in a mandated “quiet period” after filing for an IPO, did not comment on the partnership.

Bango provides carrier-billing services for Research in Motion and Opera’s app stores. This means mobile users are able to pay for purchases on their phone bills rather than a credit card. Many expect the company will to do the same for Amazon’s App Store for Android, following news of a partnership in December 2011.

Facebook opened its mobile platform to third-party developers in October 2011. It currently uses Boku to process mobile phone payments in HTML5 games like CityVille. This is only possible in the mobile web version of Facebook, not native applications because Apple and Android take 30 percent of in-app transactions on their platforms.

The Financial Times notes that Bango is aligned with Facebook’s movement toward a browser-based mobile platform. Following rumors of Facebook’s “Project Spartan” in June 2011, Bango CEO Ray Anderson wrote:

Bango technology has been optimized for browser deployment, and we see the browser as a great platform to enable truly explosive growth of mobile by making apps less dependent on the handset operating system. If you want to share an app or service with others, it makes more sense to mail or tweet out a link to a web app than to try to get your friends to download apps! It seems like Facebook may have the same vision [...]

Open Graph apps can now post to past points on users’ Timelines, according to a post on the Facebook Developer Blog. The feature, previously in beta, enables a new wave of applications that let users fill in their profiles. For instance, users can use Wipolo to indicate that they went on a trip in June 2004 and have that activity display at the right date on Timeline. Urbanspoon users can check into restaurants after the fact and have the action automatically show up in the appropriate spot. Apps that help users chronicle their past like this are a key way to enhance Timeline and could be a big opportunity for marketers and developers to engage consumers in new ways. Actions that are set more than three days in the past will not show in Ticker or News Feed. This will allow users to fill in several aspects of their Timelines at once without overtaking their friends’ feeds. Past actions will populate the monthly and yearly app aggregations as predefined by the developer.

Facebook added a new section on its developer site focused on publishing past actions. It encourages developers to provide transparency about how past actions will be posted and give users control over the functions. Posting past actions will generate a notification indicating that a past action has been posted to a user’s Timeline.

There are still some trade-offs associated with using Open Graph. Images, for example, cannot be shared as large as they can with the Photos API. (We covered these issues in more depth here.) But overall, Facebook has smartly added more resources for those working with Open Graph to promote past-tense sharing.

Facebook polls appear in Times Square – Facebook and ad agency R/GA partnered to produce a political polling app, 2012 Matters: What Matters Most. Users can indicate which issues are most important to them and have their answers appear on the Nasdaq digital billboard in Times Square.

Facebook, USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter - Involver is powering Facebook and USA Today’s Super Bowl Ad Meter on Facebook.com/sports and other pages. The app allows users to see, rate and share Super Bowl ads before, during and after the game via web or mobile.

Most users get big social return from Facebook – A study from the Pew Research Internet Project found that most users receive more social feedback than they put into the platform. This is due to the fact that there’s a small percentage of power users that is extremely active in liking, commenting and providing other social feedback on the site.

Bday Gift Finder uses data to find gifts – Bday’s Bday Gift Finder is an app that allows users to find the right gifts for friends by utilizing user data to settle on the most appropriate gift card. The app analyzes Likes and the sentiment attached to those Likes. Bday recently received $2 million in Series A funding.

Facebook and marketing agency Definition 6 have released Timeline Movie Maker, an app that compiles users’ photos, videos and other Facebook activity to create a short personal video.

The app is another example of the unique tactics the social network is using to promote its redesigned profile and part of a new trend of collaboration. The company is showing maturity as it prepares to file for an initial public offering that could raise at least $5 billion for the company.

Timeline will be mandatory for all users within weeks, but users have been able to opt in since December. (Developers gained access in September.) During this period, Facebook has taken steps to lead users to discover the new profile through their friends rather than giving the impression the social network is forcing another unwanted change on them. The company has done significant outreach to get celebrities and other influencers using Timeline. It also partnered with Moo.com to let users create Timeline-inspired business cards. These efforts would have been uncharacteristic for the social network a year or two ago, but Facebook has shown a new willingness to work with other businesses and public figures. These diverse partnerships could help the company’s valuation when it files for an IPO. Recent reports suggest Facebook could seek to raise $5 billion, lower than the previously rumored $10 billion. By setting a low float, the company could debut above its initial price as Groupon did in November. Zynga, on the other hand, reached for a larger amount in December and only crossed its initial price on Monday.

Of course, the social network has to satisfy users in addition to investors. Apps like Timeline Movie Maker help users see how personal Facebook is to them. When users visit TimelineMovieMaker.com, they can connect the app with their Facebook account. If users do not have Timeline enabled, they will be prompted to do so. After a few minutes of processing, the app produces a video including photos, videos, check-ins and status updates in the same format as the promotional video Facebook used to debut Timeline at f8. Users can change the music or swap photos if they want, then share the video with friends. Unfortunately the video takes a long time to render and cannot be played in-line from News Feed. Making it easier for users to view their friends’ videos would have made a more compelling case for Timeline.

Facebook is expected to formally file for public offering on Wednesday.

Facebook COO Shifts Europe focus from privacy to economy -  At a recent conference in Europe, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told the audience that the economy is probably more of a concern than privacy. She said so given an impending privacy law draft that would affect 27 European Union countries. Specifically, she suggested that the law could have a negative impact on the EU economy. [Image via Facebook]

Facebook has a €2.6 billion U.K. impact -  A study from Deloitte found that Facebook’s overall economic impact in the United Kingdom was €2.6 billion, or 35,200 jobs in the U.K. and 32,000 jobs in the European Union and Switzerland.

Facebook ads game categories to News Feed -  Facebook now displays the genre category below game names and stories in News Feed stories. As we reported on Inside Social Games, users might be more likely to click on games when they know more about them.

Facebook engineer creates Google hack -  An project called Focus on the User, created in part by a Facebook engineer, provides a bookmarklet that forces Google Search Plus Your World to display results from social networks besides Google+.

Causes now a standalone website – TechCrunch reported that the charity app Causes has re-launched as a standalone website.

85K Arab Facebook logins hacked – ZDnet reported that Israel and Saudi Arabia are in the midst of a hacking war, and 85,000 Arab Facebook logins are one casualty.

Washington state AG targets clickjackers -  Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna announced suits against two companies thought to encourage clickjacking on Facebook. The suit was announced at Facebook’s Seattle office.

Facebook registers ‘FB Origin’ domain - Facebook registered several domains, .com and .biz for example, for something called FB Origin via the company MarkMonitor.  Fusible speculated that this means the company is set to launch a new product along with Timeline apps.

With Facebook users now able to make posts to previous dates — as far back even as their birth — there is an opportunity for developers to build apps that facilitate this “past-tense sharing.” There are, however, a few issues the social network will have to address in its API to allow these apps to integrate more seamlessly with Timeline.

Shoebox, UrbanSpoon and Wipolo, for example, have all sought to help users fill in their new profiles, but none has been able to do so in an ideal way because of deficiencies in Open Graph.

1000memories‘ mobile app Shoebox is releasing an update today that lets people scan paper photos, upload them directly to Facebook and tag their friends and family. The app prompts users to indicate when the photo is from, but this data cannot be synced with Facebook so that the photo appears in the appropriate spot on a user’s Timeline. 1000memories co-founder Brett Huneycutt says Open Graph does not allow photos to be displayed as big as they are when posted through the Photos API. As a trade-off, Shoebox uses the Photos API instead of Open Graph, but this requires users to manually edit images’ positions on Timeline. Huneycutt says his team is working with Facebook to find alternative solutions.

Another problem with Open Graph is that individual actions are not given much, if any, weight unless users manually adjust settings in the activity log. This makes sense most of the time — people don’t want every song they listen to or article they read to show up as separate stories on Timeline. But when apps want to share more significant actions, there is not an optimal way to do this. For example, if people use Wipolo to indicate trips they have taken, the app will display monthly or yearly summaries of their travel; but it will not feature each trip at its actual date on Timeline. To do that, users need to visit their activity log and select “Shown on Timeline,” but even then the story appears much smaller than if people used Facebook’s native “life events” feature. (See below for images.) The trip also won’t appear on Timeline’s built-in Map.

Developers cannot currently access life events through the API, though the social network has indicated that it is working to provide it. If Facebook offered write permissions for life events, developers could build apps that help users easily fill in their Timelines without formatting trade-offs.

Even when format is not an issue, some developers have been unable to take advantage of past-tense sharing on Facebook. Mobile app Urbanspoon allows users to check into restaurants and select a past date if desired. Although this updates a user’s “Dineline” within the app, the action does not yet sync with Facebook properly if users choose a time more than 24 hours ago. Backdating is apparently only available to select partners, though this is unclear from Open Graph documentation. Urbanspoon senior software developer Brian Dewey says Facebook told his team that it would support the feature in the next few weeks.

[Update 2/3/12 8:23 a.m. - Facebook Platform Product Manager Eddie O'Neil confirms on Quora, "Facebook has temporarily disabled backdating actions and will re-enable this in the future. For context, this worked during the Open Graph developer preview, but there's some outstanding work that we are finishing before making this feature available to developers."]

[Update 2/6/12 10:01 a.m. - Facebook has taken the feature out of beta and provided developers with additional resources about publishing to past points on users' Timelines.]

The tools and access the social network offers developers will determine if Timeline can truly become “the story of your life on one page,” as it was pitched at f8. Open Graph clearly helps users document their lives moving forward, but developers will need more support from Facebook to build apps to share users’ histories.

How photos display on Timeline using Open Graph vs. Photos API

With Open Graph, images display as a thumbnail and link out to another site.

When apps use the Photos API, images can be shown full size on Timeline and added to a Facebook album. However, apps do not get proper links as they do when using the Open Graph API.

How past trips display on Timeline using a third-party app vs. life events

When users add a past trip via Wipolo, a story appears in the private activity log as so:

It also appears as part of an aggregate story at the end of a month or year:

If a user chooses to show a Wipolo action on Timeline, a small story appears on appropriate Timeline spot, but without the ability to resize.

When a user adds a trip using Facebook’s life event feature, this produces a larger Timeline story that includes a bigger image and the option to resize.

With Open Graph actions, users can now interact with and share things on the web in more nuanced ways than liking or posting. The new dynamics between apps, Timeline, Ticker and News Feed means more options for brand exposure on Facebook, but not necessarily in ways brands can control or own. Instead, marketers will need to think beyond their Facebook pages and consider partnership opportunities with other apps, as well as how to build new experiences for the web and mobile devices that last beyond a single campaign.

A lot of the actions users take in Open Graph apps are going to involve commercial products or entities. People will be able to “watch” movies, “wear” designer items, “drink” beverages and so on. Most of these actions will not be taken within brand-specific apps. Instead they’ll be made via Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Foodspotting and other third-party platforms. As a result, we may start to see more brands directing people to these apps. For example, a movie page on Facebook could link to the Rotten Tomatoes page after opening weekend and tell fans to rate the movie, knowing this will generate additional impressions among a user’s friends. Brands will also be more likely to partner with apps to offer promotions or be featured in some way now that their reach will be much greater. This is because instead of waiting for users to actively share things on Facebook, Open Graph apps can continuously publish lightweight stories about users’ activity. As a result, formerly niche communities like the aforementioned Pose or Foodspotting could become more viable marketing avenues.

Marketers might be tempted to create their own Open Graph apps, but they will need to think more long term than they previously have with Facebook. Timeline apps provide value through use over time, helping users share part of their identity or learn something about their own habits. These apps are not ideal for one-off promotions. If marketers create them solely to take advantage of “frictionless sharing,” users are likely to recognize them as spam.

Another important point about Open Graph apps is that since they benefit from users taking repeated action, they work well as mobile and web integrations not page tab apps. A few of Facebook’s more than 60 Open Graph partners developed canvas applications, but none were using page tabs. We suspect this is in part because tabs apps are unavailable on mobile and pages could be converted to the Timeline format sometime this year. Marketers should be mindful of how much they invest in page tab apps moving forward and instead consider what kind of Open Graph integration or partnerships would be most relevant for their consumers.

See our breakdown of Open Graph apps by category here.

Image credit: Facebook