Facebook: Why Applications Suck

When Facebook opened its API to developers in May, programmers scrambled to grab a piece of the Facebook glory. Now, nearly six months later, more than 6,500 applications adorn users' profiles. They span every conceivable interest and personality type, and yet, they have one striking thing in common: They all suck.

One might wonder why this is the case. Surely, at least a handful of developers would create truly innovative and useful applications, right? Nope. In fact, the way the system is set up discourages intelligent and talented developers. The reasoning for this can be summed up with a simple table:

		Create Popular App	Create Unpopular App
	Innovative Idea	You gain a ton of users, and enjoy the glory for a while; that is, until facebook replicates your idea exactly and pushes for it. Now you have to deal with the granddaddy of applications on their turf. Good luck.	Great idea that just isn’t catching on? Don’t worry. The facebook team, or popular facebook developers, will gladly dumb down your great ideas and incorporate them into their silly existing applications.
	Truly Idiotic Idea	This is where the majority of popular facebook apps exist; virtual object tossing, drink passing, and vampirism. If this is your cup of tea, facebook development is for you.	If you’re idea is so ridiculous that even the 14-year old high-schoolers can’t enjoy it, you might want to consider another profession; like flipping burgers. Maybe virtual burgers.

In sum, the only applications that survive are the ones in the lower left quadrant. This reasoning developers go through ensures that useful applications never really make it onto facebook, and explains why the present applications are so ridiculous. If you have a great idea, you're better off trying to swing it on your own. Sure, users won't flock to your application the day you release it, but at least it won't get stolen or swallowed up by others in a position to do so. After all, what's stopping them?

Furthermore, the proprietary code you're forced to use makes it impossible to develop the application for other platforms. So much for every social network following in Facebook's footsteps; you'll still have to write your applications over and over again. Perhaps Google will change all of that soon enough.

Effects of Ridiculous Applications

The poor quality of the applications leads to decreased usefulness of the service, due primarily to excessive decentralization. But, decentralization and customization are good things, right? To an extent, yes. But why, then, do people often prefer Facebook to MySpace? Consider this example that illustrates a drawback of decentralization.

A while ago, Facebook removed the ability to list one's classes on his/her profile. I suppose the Facebook team had no choice, since expanding the user-base to high schoolers and graduates makes such a thing impossible to maintain. Well, no big deal - you can just add one of a dozen or so applications that lists your classes, right? Not quite. Adding one of these applications only links you with other students in your classes who use the same application you use; essentially, nobody. The result? A previously useful feature that will never again function the way it used to. Good luck finding study partners or searching for peers based on what classes they take!

Furthermore, the applications alienate Facebook's core (and most valuable) users. The heaviest application users are the high-school students, whose fickle hearts and fleeting desires change at the slightest whim. Is this the basket you want to put your eggs in, Facebook team? As soon as they find something more fun, they'll jump ship and forget Facebook ever existed.

The valuable, more mature users are more often than not annoyed by the applications. They remember the days of universality; where everyone's page looked the same. Every profile was neat and clean. They knew where to find things on one's page, and everything was useful and universally connected.

Now, they have to scroll for ten seconds just to see a friend's wall posts. Certain core aspects of the service, like contact information, are either minimized or hidden altogether. They also get bombarded with requests for application additions, as if event and group requests weren't annoying enough! Now, my little (14-year old) sister's high-school friends not only ask to be my friend, but ask me to join in on their stupid little application games. Sure, a simple greasemonkey hack can fix this, but most people think greasemonkey refers to a place where you take your car to get an oil change! The vast majority of users are left to bear the annoying reminders (and sometimes e-mails).

Perhaps things will improve with time, though I wouldn't be surprised to see more news regarding traffic drops in the coming months.