Facebook for the enterprise to launch from third party ISV
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InfoWorld - WorkLight, a Web 2.0 application developer, announced today WorkBook, a Facebook overlay targeted to Facebook users in a corporate environment.
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Facebook will help other social networking sites to run applications developed for its own software platform, it said Thursday.The company already encourages developers to build applications that work with its site, publishing details of the tags and APIs (application programming interfaces) needed to exchange data.Now it plans to license those details for use by other social networking sites and platforms, according to the Facebook Developers blog . The idea is that developers will only have to write their widget or small application once if there is a common platform for structuring how the applications integrate with sites.The initiative runs in parallel with Google&#39;s OpenSocial project, which revolves around creating standard APIs (application programming interfaces) for social networking applications. APIs let applications exchange information and are crucial to building programs that, for example, take information from Facebook profiles and blend it with some new functionality or feature.Facebook already has a taker. On Wednesday, social networking site Bebo said it would use Facebook&#39;s standards for its own Open Application Platform. Bebo isn&#39;t taking sides, however: it will eventually support Google&#39;s OpenSocial too, it said.MySpace, the largest social networking site, has also said it will support OpenSocial.Facebook said its architectural platform is composed in part of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) related tags and methods for building applications.It published details of FBML , its set of tags for formatting data exchanged between applications and users. Some of the tags enable developers to build programs with the same design elements as Facebook&#39;s site, so the application blends in.External developers have created about 7,000 applications since Facebook opened up its site in June. The applications have offered a commercial opportunity for developers, although Facebook has been under fire for how those programs respect users&#39; privacy.Google&#39;s OpenSocial platform got off the ground last month with Plaxo&#39;s Pulse, the first application to use the APIs. Pulse, which aggregates and delivers new information from social networking and other Web sites, is a feature of Plaxo&#39;s Web-based address book service.&#160;
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The Web 2.0-social networking phenomenon&#39;s seemingly irresistible force field has ensnared yet another niche: travel.Dopplr, a hosted service, allows users to track the travel schedule and whereabouts of themselves and their friends through a visual interface reminiscent of Facebook, rather than traditional means such as e-mail.Although the application is still in private-beta phase, its backers have wasted no time in courting workers in large enterprises -- those with the most intense travel schedules. While for most users, Dopplr is invite-only -- a buzz-building gimmick harkening back to the early days of Gmail -- the company more recently created the Dopplr 100. Employees from the 100 companies on the list can sign up for the service. Among the 100 are Sun, Microsoft, and IBM.Other startups, such as Tripit, are also trying to marry social networking and travel itineraries. Tripit takes user-submitted information such as airline and hotel confirmation e-mails and uses the data within to generate a tailored itinerary, replete with maps, local weather info and the like. It also allows users to create lists of friends.But Dopplr may stand out in terms of early buzz -- the company claims nearly 100,000 users -- and for quickly orienting itself around business users.Dopplr&#39;s chief operating officer, Taneli Tikka, said the company&#39;s enterprise ambitions arose from research into their existing user profiles. &quot;We analyzed the user base and found that clearly there were industries ... that were using it more than others,&quot; he said.James Governor, an analyst in the U.K. with Redmonk, is a vocal cheerleader for Dopplr. (Governor also shares an office with Dopplr founder Matt Biddulph, but says their business relationship ends there.) Governor recently issued a challenge to software companies listed on the Dopplr 100 through his blog, urging employees to sign up.He says Dopplr ultimately provides &quot;manufactured serendipity,&quot; for social and business-related scenarios.For example, if you had to travel to a distant city on business, you might well spend the night in your hotel room alone. But Dopplr could alert you to the presence of a friend or colleague who by happenstance is also in town, Governor said.Governor also notes the enduring presence of Web 2.0 conferences, despite the ever-growing richness of the communication-centric technologies that give rise to such events. &quot;Increasingly we work and meet in online interactions. .... That&#39;s not to say it&#39;s not rich, but it&#39;s no substitution for face-to-face contact.&quot;&quot;Some people don&#39;t like other people, and Dopplr probably isn&#39;t for them,&quot; he joked.Dopplr could also help enterprises save time and money, Governor speculated. A company might send three teams of workers with slightly overlapping responsibilities abroad on separate trips over time, for different reasons. &quot;With Dopplr you might be able say wait, let&#39;s send one guy on all three calls.&quot;The question outstanding, though, is how Dopplr will evolve its service into something fully enterprise-ready.One crucial topic for CIOs is security. Business users have given Dopplr feedback regarding this issue, according to Tikka. &quot;That&#39;s definitely something we need to carefully look at. We think companies should keep their confidential information with them and keep it confidential,&quot; he said. &quot;We would only be limited to kind of trivial stuff that doesn&#39;t really help if someone was to eavesdrop.&quot;In the meantime, Tikka said, Dopplr plans to monetize its service through a couple of avenues. Later this year, the company hopes to offer subscription-based premium accounts, which would include assorted value-added services to the basic platform. The company also intends to deliver finely tuned commercial advertising based on user profile information. Also in the works are plans to extend the Dopplr 100.
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Social networking site adds Skype service
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Facebook took a new step into the mobile realm on Thursday, launching a platform for operators designed to make its social networking application work better on portable devices.Vodafone is the first operator to use the Facebook for Mobile Operators platform and has started services in the U.K. and Germany, said Jed Stremel, Facebook&#39;s director of mobile division. Vodafone will soon expand the program to Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Portugal.The platform involves giving operators a set of technical specifications intended to resolve some of frustrating hang-ups when using Facebook on a mobile phone rather than a PC, such as smoothing out login problems and opening up other features, Stremel said.The move by Facebook, which ranks next to MySpace as one of the most popular social networking sites, is intended to grow its user base, which the company estimates at 64 million users. So far, the company says it has 6 million users of Facebook Mobile, an unsupported mobile version of the Web site that will now get full support, Stremel said.At the moment the mobile site does not have any advertising. Stremel would not reveal the financial details of Facebook&#39;s deal with Vodafone, although he said operators will be able to generate revenue from data services as their subscribers access Facebook.The long-term hope for social networking sites is&#160;rich online advertising revenue. Facebook, which has an&#160;exclusive deal with Microsoft to place ads on the site, also did not say when it would put advertising on the mobile site.The company is hoping to lure more operators by the simplicity with which they can enable Facebook, Stremel said.Facebook has created special Web pages with instructions on how operators can set up their systems, he said. The instructions, for example, let operators add system settings that will let their subscribers send MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) with photos or video to their Facebook profiles, Stremel said.The platform also includes other specifications designed to stop abuse of Facebook, such as spamming, Stremel said. When someone sends their first MMS with a photo to their profile, the user is sent back a confirmation message with a code or a link. That confirmation then links that person&#39;s phone with their Facebook account, Stremel said.&#160;
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Following Facebook's lead, the social networking site plans within the next few months to make an API for its platform available for anyone looking to build applications to run atop the site.
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Facebook and Microsoft Corp on  Wednesday said the world's largest software maker will become  the exclusive provider of banner advertising and sponsored  links on the social networking Web site as part of a strategic  alliance.
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The rapid evolution of social-networking sites now will feature a competition among platforms, with the announcement on Thursday that Facebook will make its platform available to other sites.
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Members of social networking services  like Facebook will soon be able to update their profiles by  simply making a phone call, instead of having to type on a  computer keyboard.
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The deal is expected to include an expansion of the software maker's advertising deal with Facebook, which only covers the U.S.
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(InfoWorld) - Social networking site Facebook has bought Parakey, a tiny startup that had been developing software it bills as a Web-based operating system. The Mountain View, California, startup has not actually shipped a product, but is in the process of developing technology it says combines the best of the desktop and Web-based software world. In a November 2006 interview Parakey founder Blake Ross described the company's eponymous product as "a Web operating system that can do everything an OS can do." Ross and Parakey's other founder Joe Hewitt will work on Facebook's Web site as well as the Facebook Platform, a set of application program interfaces (APIs) that developers can use to write applications for the social networking site. Previously the two entrepreneurs had been co-founders of the Firefox open source browser project. They formed Parakey in 2006. Founded in 2004, the privately held Facebook boasts 31 million users. Parakey is the company's first acquisition. Financial terms of the purchase were not disclosed.
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A new application from Raketu Communications aims to integrate Internet Protocol television with social networking.
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(InfoWorld) - Facebook became the latest entrant into the online video battle Thursday, opening its Facebook f8 platform to outside developers and partners in an effort to gain ground on social networking rivals. The move allows third parties to develop functions for Facebook, including video, advertising, and retail capabilities. Part of the system will use the company's own markup language, creatively titled Facebook Markup. Since News Corp. bought rival MySpace in 2005, Facebook has struggled to keep pace. Last year, Facebook declined a $1 billion acquisition offer from Yahoo, instead choosing to go it alone in hopes of a better offer or greater solo success. Thursday's announcement could push Facebook more towards becoming a commercial provider of social networking tools, rather than attempting to take on MySpace as a consumer play. Allowing outside parties to begin selling advertising on Facebook could also help the company to monetize its audience, estimated by comScore NetworksÂ at just over 23 million visitors per month. Self-starting advertisers and retailers could build their own applications or retail functions, saving Facebook the effort while still providing revenue.
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Facebook, the social-network site that has enjoyed explosive growth in new members over the past three months, said it plans to let users tell the rest of the world how to find them on the site.
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The company will license its tags and APIs to other social networking sites, so they can run apps designed for Facebook.
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Facebook, a social-networking site that has become an open development platform, announced Thursday that it purchased startup Parakey for an undisclosed amount. The company, started by Mozilla Firefox cofounders Blake Ross and Joe Hewitt, has been creating products to unify and integrate desktop applications and the Web.
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Facebook launched a platform for operators designed to make its social networking application work better on portable devices.