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c h a p t e r8 :Customized experienCes via FaCebook appliCations■• people who use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50 percent more
active on Facebook than nonmobile users.
• more than 180 mobile operators in 60 countries are working to deploy and pro-
mote Facebook mobile products.
there are a few possibilities for the evolution of mobile apps that utilize social
graph data from Facebook:
Facebook Connect–enabled sites that behave like mobile apps there is nothing keeping develop-
ers today from building sites that are purposely optimized to run as apps on mobile
devices. Facebook Connect (which was covered in Chapter 7) would pull in required
social graph data and allow for communication with friends and across news Feeds.
App compatibility through Facebook Mobile Facebook mobile runs on a wide range of mobile
devices (iphone, blackberry, palm, android, sidekick, Windows mobile, and others).
this app displays a wide range of data that is exposed on Facebook—the news Feed,
status updates, profiles, and other friend activity. but Facebook mobile does not allow
third-party apps to run through Facebook mobile and run on the mobile device as they
run on Facebook. should Facebook see an opportunity in extending the dev platform
fully to mobile devices, we would expect future compatibility between third-party
Facebook apps and Facebook mobile.
A Mobile Facebook app container alternatively, Facebook could release a simple “app
container” for each type of mobile device that taps into the user’s social graph on
Facebook. this container would be fully customizable to a particular brand or look
and feel. it would act as a “platform” of its own but would allow for Facebook and
mobile development with one simple, comprehensive effort. this would reduce the con-
fusion and effort necessary to target different mobile devices, and it would also allow
developers to focus on creating better apps that users will enjoy.
Facebook applications are a great way to extend your brand experience beyond
the provided features of the Facebook platform. it just takes a little creativity and
patience to navigate the rules and standards that have evolved after the first few years
of third-party social application development. it is truly multidisciplinary—you’ll need
to scope an app properly, enforce a great customer experience, and manage a develop-
ment effort to get it in the right place. if you don’t, your time, money, and energy will
be wasted, and you’ll have to find a new Facebook tactic to engage with your audience.