Facebook: Killing Apps and Alumni Mags
Posted by Petrice Gaskin at Jun. 03, 2008
According to the New York Times and Silicon Alley, Facebook (and other social networks) are putting the squeeze on Alumni magazines and possibly creating more hurdles for Facebook app developers with its profile redesign that would tuck away the majority of apps away unless a user went looking for them specifically.
The New York Times' article explains that the dominance of social networks like Facebooks has rendered many quarterly Alumni magazines obsolete. Alumni used to look to the magazines to find out which of their classmates had landed new jobs, moved to different states, had babies or gotten married. Now with the click of a mouse they can access to all that information, sans glossy paper. Some schools aren't quite hip to the game, and are resisting aligning themselves with social networks or migrating their content online. Some schools, like Harvard, have opted to expand their web presence while maintaining their Alumni magazine and focusing its content away from information that can be more easily gleaned online.
According to Silicone Alley's post, Facebook's redesign could spell trouble for app builders.
Right now, when users add applications, they are asked whether they want to add the app in a box their friends see when they view their profile. As of today, this option is automatically checked. But when the redesign goes live, the option won’t even be there. Users will have to proactively decided to display the app.
But they argue that in the end the change might simply help weed out bad apps.
The New York Times' article explains that the dominance of social networks like Facebooks has rendered many quarterly Alumni magazines obsolete. Alumni used to look to the magazines to find out which of their classmates had landed new jobs, moved to different states, had babies or gotten married. Now with the click of a mouse they can access to all that information, sans glossy paper. Some schools aren't quite hip to the game, and are resisting aligning themselves with social networks or migrating their content online. Some schools, like Harvard, have opted to expand their web presence while maintaining their Alumni magazine and focusing its content away from information that can be more easily gleaned online.
According to Silicone Alley's post, Facebook's redesign could spell trouble for app builders.
Right now, when users add applications, they are asked whether they want to add the app in a box their friends see when they view their profile. As of today, this option is automatically checked. But when the redesign goes live, the option won’t even be there. Users will have to proactively decided to display the app.
But they argue that in the end the change might simply help weed out bad apps.