Alec Saunders SquawkBox

For those interested in mobile Skype, Jim Courtney's guest column on GigaOm is a must read.  He does a great job of explaining what can be done within the constraints of today's mobile networks, and what might be possible in the future.  As well, he finishes with a nice plug for Open Access. 

Facebook applications are declining in popularity; developers are to blame.

Are Facebook users beginning to tire of the tactics used by application developers to create virality?  It certainly looks that way.  The latest spammy tactic is to force potential users to invite others to use the application before doing anything of value.   The backlash over this tactic is mounting, however, and developers are caught in the cross fire as users begin to abandon applications en masse.

In just one month, the Facebook group No, I will NOT invite 20 friends just to add your application has accumulated over 60,000 members. Fed up users are congregating to discuss tactics.  They're naming names, with a list of Rotten Apple applications and repeat offender developers.  A small but growing number have signed a petition asking Facebook to ban forced invites.  

The latest tactic?  Reviews.  Facebook's new review system for applications allows users to rate and share their ratings with others.  Some members of the group are giving 1 star to applications they deem to be repeat offenders.

Whether or not this group's tactics will be effective remains to be seen.  However, concurrent with the explosion of meaningless Facebook applications, and the increasingly bad behaviour of those applications, users seem to have soured on Facebook applications in general.  According to Adonomics data, all of the top 10 leaderboard applications have seen substantial drops in daily users since peaking in November and December.

Facebook application developers themselves are uncertain of how to handle the situation.  Debate rages on the developers boards, with some defending the use of forced invites, and others decrying them.  Suggestions that developers build useful or richer applications are scoffed at by those who view Facebook as solely an entertainment platform for college students.  Some are asking Facebook to intervene, while others (presumably the creators of those spammy applications) are putting the onus on the user to reject the application. 

Meanwhile, all is well on Facebook itself, as growth continues (68 million active users in the last 30 days) and page views mount. Developers of Facebook applications, however, have reached a watershed that demands a focus on delivering utility and value rather than thinly disguised advertising vehicles.

Earlier this week, Abbeynet and Jajah announced a new relationship, that has Abbeynet’s Hictu! coupled with Jajah for calling.  I have to admit, I was surprised.  Luca Filigheddu’s Abbeynet also provides services similar to Jajah, although perhaps not with the same penetration into the market place, or the same global footprint.  Even Luca will admit that Jajah’s scope is hard to ignore!

Hictu! is an audio / video microblogging service.  Think of it as twitter, but using other media.   Now, from any posting, Hictu! users will be able to simply click a button and talk to the creator of the post.  Neat!

The new Hictu! also includes integration with GMail for contacts, and deeper integration with twitter as well. 

This is the first of many announcements that we’ll see this year as inexpensive calling goes truly global, and gets integrated with cool Web 2.0 / Voice 2.0 applications like Hictu!

Facebook has made some very cool changes to the way that the "About" page on an application works, in the last couple of days. About pages now behave very much like fan pages.  Users can become fans of applications, for example.  Fans can receive update messages from the application owner, which is a much needed feature.   Previously, the only way that an an application owner could message the user base was by writing code to… send message to the user base.  In addition to becoming a fan of the application, users can also write reviews, which can include a one to five star ranking, and which are shared with their friends.  This simultaneously provides better feedback for the application owner, and creates a marketing opportunity.

Application owners can also now reorganize the About page, in much the same that, as a user, you can reorganize your personal profile.  So, for example, on the FREE Conference Call page, the reviews of the application are now the top item, rather than the list of your friends that have also installed the application.

Check out the changes on by visiting the FREE Conference Calls about page…. and while you're at it, leave us a review, or add yourself as a fan!

This morning's Squawk Box was particularly lively.  We had a great cross section of people on the call including regulars Randall Howard, Jim Courtney, Howard Thaw, and newcomers Brad Dixon, Gernot Ross, and Nick Desbarats. We discussed the situation with Scrabulous, Facebook's platform and the businesses it has spawned, Microsoft's earnings results, and Sprint and Verizon's latests targets in their patent war.

Enjoy! 

 

 Squawk Box Jan 25 [25:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download