Call it the winner’s curse. Facebook Platform - a service that allows outside developers to build applications that work on the Facebook social networking site - sparked huge interest when it launched this spring.

The service proved so popular that Facebook almost immediately began receiving complaints that some rogue opportunists were spamming users’ friends with application invites. Power users who installed many applications soon found that their Facebook news feeds - an important source of information about what is going on in their friend networks - were being flooded with application updates. Other users reported isolated cases of developers engaging in deceptive or misleading practices, such as tricking users into inviting friends to join a new application.

Earlier this month, Facebook’s platform team delivered a stern warning to its developer community: Dodgy practices that mislead users would no longer be tolerated. On Monday Facebook followed up by announcing plans to tighten up its platform offering. Among the changes, developers will no longer be able to build custom invitation features - they will have to choose from among a set of standard invitation templates designed by Facebook. Developers will also no longer be able to send emails to users informing them that a friend has added their application.

Dave Morin, head of Facebook’s platform team, says the changes are designed to "shift the balance more in favor of good apps, which we think in the long term is good for everyone."

Whether Facebook can use its platform to become an "operating system for the web," as some observers have suggested, remains an open question. But its response to  platform abuse has demonstrated an ability to make adjustments on the fly, all while keeping its users’ interests in mind - an important skill to master in the fickle world of social networking.

August 28th, 2007 in Internet | Permalink