Is the redesign killing Facebook apps? Yes, say app developers • Hacker News Board

Re: Is the redesign killing Facebook apps? Yes, say app developers

#11

Post by pxlpshr » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 5:48 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #7

pxlpshr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you and me both. I also question the so-called diligence of VCs who invested in fb app developers believing a viable and sustainable model existed. Why? Here are a few of my reasons: 1. social flight 2. arrogant leadership (i'm CEO bitch) 3. unstable platform in regard to design changes (fb is fb, it's not an OS). Now, I certainly feel a few indies and bootstrappers can make a great salary... but 10:1 return is high-…

I think the app market is barely in its infancy. F'rinstance, why hasn't Vue subclassed the FB Event app to create a cinema trip event that automagically books your ticket? Or Dominos to order pizza for my 'Night of Mayhem'? That's where the value will come from. These all seem so obvious to me...

Good point... but I'm in the boat of "I don't want a swiss-army knife, social website, thing-a-ma-jig"... I want facebook to be good at one thing, which it once was and is no longer. As such, I visit fb about three-quarters as much as I use to...

Similarly, this is why I feel AAPL has gained market share, while MS lags behind tripping over LEGACY support while attempting to please every need of their customer base. And another example is 37signals.

However, like I said... my opinion might be bias. It's hard for me to be objective about Facebook given my distaste for it's recent shifts, and having loved the former.

Re: Is the redesign killing Facebook apps? Yes, say app developers

#12

Post by hansmoleman » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 7:29 PM UTC

aggieben wrote: post #3

If I never saw another Facebook app I'd never even miss them.

Second that

Re: Is the redesign killing Facebook apps? Yes, say app developers

#13

Post by nickb » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 7:59 PM UTC

Don't be a sharecropper. Never base your primary business on a platform that's not completely open because if you do, you will suffer and you will be governed by someone else's whims. Think of all these proprietary platforms as marketing venues or ways to monetize portions of your revenue. But never base your core around them.

Re: Is the redesign killing Facebook apps? Yes, say app developers

#14

Post by steveplace » Tue, Sep 23, 2008, 8:38 PM UTC

It's terrible! The new layout is most certainly not conducive to my sheep-throwing.

Re: Is the redesign killing Facebook apps? Yes, say app developers

#15

Post by ken » Wed, Sep 24, 2008, 5:10 PM UTC

This highlights one of the biggest problems I have with web apps. The flip side of "you can instantly upgrade all users of your software" is "your users are all forced to use the latest version, whether they like it or not".

In the old days, if you didn't like the new version, you simply didn't upgrade. Nothing would stop you from running the old version. (I'm still using a 2001 version of an app which has had 3 major releases since then.)

With open-source, you had the option not only of sticking with the old version, but maintaining it.

Web apps, in this respect, are a step backwards: you can't even run the old version. If you're lucky, they might include an "Older version" link (GMail), but chances are they'll just remove features without even updating the docs (Google Maps). (But I'm not bitter.)

In the economic sense, you used to have to compete with not just your competitors, but with older versions of yourself. On the web, this self-competition is removed. Also, web apps tend to have strong network effects (who's the #2 Facebook or Twitter?), and make it very difficult to get your data out. Great for startups, bad for users.