This is what happens when I keep compiling links and then forget about them.
How will dating sites take advantage of FacebookConnect? Speaking of Facebook, I don’t see any Match people in Are You Interested anymore.
50+ essays on viral marketing, social network monetization, product design and more.
Facebook Growth By Country and the Slowdown in App Usage.
Why is it that I have to enter in my personal data over and over again for every Facebook application. Being able to sign up for applications quickly is the whole idea behind Facebook applications, and most apps fail at this miserably. Facebook should have a private tab on my profile containing information I may choose to release to dating and other applications. This is straightforward to implement, what’s the holdup? Don’t they realize this might increase the likelihood that I install an application?
The major caveat here is that the Facebook API for developers lacks a lot of basic functionality, so I can’t blame everything on the developers of applications. Or can I? Developer interest in Facebook waning, everyone is moving over to iPhone app development. Viximo to the rescue.
Markus should add widgets and an API to PlentyOfFish. He’d probably do it in a week of man-hours, but if he only works 15 minutes a day, might take a while.
Is the Facebook Land Grab Over? Slide, maker of the most popular Facebook applications, halted new application development.
The way that most dating sites and social apps recommend people to me is broken. Match’s Daily5 is fair, and they vow to continue improving the algorithm, but the introductions I get for the most part never seem to make sense. SinglesNet and Mate 1 are a 10 on the scale of annoying use of this feature. But boy does it drive pageviews.
Look at all the stuff on this Are You Interested page. PlentyOffish ad, giant application branding header and provocative SinglesNet Ad. This is the only way to make any money these days on social apps. I would pay Facebook $50 a year never to see ads like these again. The word application is really a misnomer, these are HotorNot clones masquerading as advertising delivery mechanisms.
But many are they are making money and allowing companies like Zoosk to raise millions of dollars in funding. It doesn’t matter if these applications are generic, they are best of class and launched before people got tired of developing Facebook apps. These are the companies that get funded.
Why are people allowed into these apps without a photo? Even a photo of a tree is more interesting than a question mark. I would make the blank photos say “anonymous coward” like they do on Slashdot. Calling people out can be a great motivator if applied effectively.
Social network dating apps need to evolve past the HotOrNot model into something more engaging. However, early tests of matching apps with lots of features were not embraced by users, who like the empty calories of clicking and rating 100 people at a time and then moving on to something else on their lunch break. It’s no wonder the application useage growth has plateaued. These checkboxes are out of control! Why aren’t they explicitly explaining WHAT data the application is accessing? Most of them don’t appear to access anything other than your Friends list.
Check out this SpeedDate app on Facebook. Why can’t I just accept a gift or a beer or a hug or a video from someone without having to go through the process of installing an application. Too many steps.
#1 How can SpeedDate know who is hot?
#2 Do I get faster matches with non-hot people?
#3 I’ve never noticed a difference between 1, 8 and 16 friends. Nobody ever contacts me on SpeedDate except for people SpeedDate thinks I want to meet. See above argument.
List of Applications in the Facebook Dating Applications category.
Viibee on Facebook.
I need to come up with a full list of dating apps to track via Appsaholic. It’s difficult, because of the ambiguity between dating and social apps. One thing I know is that I’m going to knock down the 1,000+ dating apps in the Facebook Directory down to a much smaller number.
AzoogleAds Facebook advertising network.
How Much is a Facebook ad worth (Jan 2008).
Facebook Applications Trends Report (March 2008).
Top Facebook Applications and Applications statistics from Adonomics.