October 2011 – Stay N Alive

Facebook Just Downplayed The Biggest Launch They’ve Made Since Platform for the Web

I’m still trying to understand what just happened. The other day I wrote about finding some information about the upcoming HTML5 platform for mobile launch awhile back. There was a piece of their developer documentation that they had left open, which listed all the launch partners, and provided sample apps, which were publicly visible at the time. I had images, HTML, and the entire mobile SDK to look at and play with – all available publicly when I found it. Of course, taking the honorable route, I notified my friends at Facebook and they promptly closed the documentation in preparation for their launch. I’m now wondering if I had just written about it, if it would have been more talked about than what Facebook just did.

Today Facebook launched their iPad app. At least that’s what you would think if you were just a normal user and had no privy information to building apps for Facebook and weren’t following Facebook’s developer blog. Facebook wrote a blog post, announcing the new iPad app, and only briefly mentioned an app ecosystem that had launched with it. When in reality, Facebook just launched something bigger than the original F8 Platform Launch back in 2007.

What Facebook just launched should have had the pomp and circumstance of another F8, when in reality all they published was a blog post to developers. This should have been a press event lead by Mark Zuckerberg, and it should have been touted as “something awesome”, just like Zuck did at the Skype video integration launch a few months ago. Yes, it’s that big, and I’m extremely excited for this launch – my hope is that others can see the potential. I’m a little worried Facebook didn’t hype this up enough.

Facebook HTML5 Mobile Platform’s Potential


When Facebook Platform launched for web back in 2007, Facebook only had 20 million users at the time. Shortly after launch, regardless of that size, developers were immediately seeing their apps built for Facebook platform go from 0 to millions of users in a matter of days. That was for web only.

Today, with the almost exact same type of launch – this time on mobile – Facebook is giving developers an audience of over 350 million users to target their apps. While not called such, all these apps run under similar experiences to the web “Canvas Pages”, and allow developers’ apps to run as a native part of the existing Facebook app experience. Users never have to leave the Facebook app (which is now on the iPad as well) to use their favorite Facebook apps (think Farmville, or Words With Friends).

It doesn’t stop there though. Developers’ apps now appear in the news feed of the mobile apps, allowing for greater discovery of the apps they build. If users search for their app they can also use it by just typing the app’s name in the search box. That’s the potential of 350+ million users all sharing your app with their friends. In addition, Facebook extended the requests dialog to work with mobile – this means your friends can also invite you to use the mobile apps they’re using on their devices.

With today’s launch you can expect Facebook on mobile devices to grow even further. It’s at 350+ million users now. Just as in the days of their original platform launch, users are now more likely to use the mobile apps, and more likely to get their friends using the Facebook experience on mobile. That means more viewers and users for developers, and a much greater opportunity for entrepreneurs.

HTML5 Goes Mainstream


Perhaps the biggest affect of today’s launch is the affect it is going to have on HTML5 mobile apps. Now, in one fell swoop, Facebook has created its own “app store” which reaches hundreds of millions of users. Developers can create their apps natively, or in HTML5 – it doesn’t matter, and they’ll all work in the experience, across numerous devices. Facebook can just be the means of distributing the app – the HTML5 apps don’t even need to exist inside Facebook!

I think the game has changed for HTML5 after today’s launch. Now developers finally have a choice. They finally have a means to standardize and use a technology that works across any device, and in any browser, but looks like a normal app. Today, with Facebook’s Platform for Mobile launch, HTML5 just went mainstream.

I am stoked about today’s launch of Facebook’s HTML5 Platform for mobile – it’s a huge game changer. It’s revolutionary. To me it’s even bigger than Timeline and the real time ticker that they launched at F8. I just don’t get why Facebook didn’t launch this at F8, or at least, why they didn’t do a special press event to get people more excited about it. I’m really worried Facebook didn’t get their PR in order for this launch – it should have been better prepared, and much better explained to the mainstream press and users.

Today’s launch is big – real big, and I’m not sure I’m seeing enough people talk about it. If you ask most members of the press, they’d say just an iPad app launched today. I’m not sure that’s the news Facebook wanted out of today’s launch.

Getting Relevant News With the Stay N Alive Newsletter

As you know, I love tech news. I’ve shared, on this blog, of my love of Google Reader and subscribing to news in various places around the web. I follow and subscribe to thousands of interesting tech people around the web. I get inside news on what’s coming and what’s happening in the industry, and I share what I can, when I can. Many of you have asked how you can get a sample of all the news I share, in all the places I share it. It’s difficult to follow me in every place I am, and I don’t expect anyone to do so. That’s why today I’m launching a new newsletter for those that want to get the most interesting news highlights from everything I share during the week.

If you look up in the top header, you’ll see a new “Newsletter” tab. Click on that, and you can enter your name and email address to subscribe. It’s also on the left navbar of this blog.

I’m really excited for this – finally I have a way to get you the best news I can provide on a weekly basis, and you won’t miss anything you don’t need to. For those that are already subscribed to this blog by email, you’ll automatically get it – go ahead and click the unsubscribe link in the news email if you don’t want it (don’t worry, you’ll still get my blog posts from this blog). For everyone else, just fill out the form and you’re subscribed!

The first issue goes out on Tuesday, and you’ll get it weekly from then on. Let me know what you think! I can’t wait to finally be able to share with you my favorite news highlights from around the web.

The Conflict of Honor, or Fame and Expertise – What Would You Do?

I came across some very public information tonight on Facebook’s site (not from any of my Facebook friends – anyone can find it), that to any other blogger would be fair game to share. It basically confirms many of the rumors of Techcrunch’s reporting of Spartan, and reveals more details that even Techcrunch doesn’t know. I guess being a developer kind of helps in “reporting”. However, I’m torn whether the “right thing” to do is to share the information I just found.

The thing is – I have very close friends at Facebook. I tried to get them to spill the beans about what is launching, but understandably, they wouldn’t share it (I don’t expect them to). Of course, if they told me what I know now I would definitely not have shared it. My word is my honor – if someone tells me something and tells me not to share it, I don’t share it. My friendship is more important to me than breaking my honor. However, what I found tonight wasn’t from any friend – it’s out there in the open.

So you understand why I’m torn. I know a whole lot about what Facebook is getting ready to launch as a result of this find, and I could notify my friends at Facebook of the mistake of this data being out in the open, or I can publish it on my blog, letting the world know I understand how to find these things, bringing a ton of traffic here, and breaking the news before even Facebook does. People get pretty good job offers off this type of stuff (although I admit I’m not sure I’m looking right now, yet). Would that be the right thing to do though? I know what Techcrunch would do (and I probably would do the same thing if I was employed there – it’s expected of a blog like that – it’s news).

I think I’ve decided to hold on to most of the information, but I will share one thing with you to prove I know something’s coming, very likely tomorrow, in the realm of a mobile platform on Facebook. Keep watching here and on Google+ and Facebook and I hope to share more, in the right way, as it makes sense.

Anyway, here’s the iOS icon they’re likely going to use:

I’ll let you speculate what this means. 
What do you think? Am I doing the right thing in keeping this quiet?