Facebook is reportedly launching Pandemic, which is a program for advertisers to buy pages. It looks to be somewhat like a sponsored page system, and will offer an additional option for sponsored groups that advertisers can set up. The sponsored pages will have games and other applications that users can interact with.
They may also include options for vertical categories like movies, music, restaurants, travel, non-profits and more. As Venturebeat reports, this could compete with some of the third-party applications that are already on the site. As these pages will be created by Facebook and merely sponsored by advertisers, it could in fact take some attention away from applications such as Flixter or others that look to leverage the community for social reviews and ratings.
These will also be integrated with you news feeds as well, which of course lends to some viral spreading of these pages. As the pages will also have their own URLS, they’ll be accessible via web searches. With Facebook taking attention away from its own developers’ platform, it’s being noted that this is the reason why so many companies are becoming overwhelmingly interested in Google’s OpenSocial, as they were aware of Facebook’s upcoming decision.
In addition, Facebook looks to be exporting some of its networking capabilities to other brands and websites as well, such as a Facbook button on Orbitz to alert your friends that you’ll be going on a trip. This will of course show up in their news feeds, and this will, in a sense, act as an advertisement for Orbitz as well.
So is this Facebook’s time to finally turn evil on us? After having a platform for Facebook developers, it looks like Facebook has done its market research and will be implementing its own version of information-based applications that prove most useful to both users and brands.
This seems to be a large appeal to advertisers, and another level of implementing its own ad network. But will this harm the amount of following that Facebook has garnered for its open platform, from the developers’ community? Or can this be somehow integrated (ad revenue, perhaps) for the developers’ benefit?
User comment: By: greasyguideYou bitch as developers making all that case and Facebook only making $150m a year funk dat! Developers sucks and Facebook needs to make that money. Facebook = Pimp Developers = Hoes Bitches...where my money
User comment: By: salmonmoose"If you were using Firefox, maybe your spelling wouldn't suck as much" If you had finished high-school, perhaps your writing skills wouldn't be so sub-par. :)
User comment: By: ItisIFacebook:MUAHAHAHA!!!We are the google-killer hear us roar. OpenSocial Users:An open social app API IS enough to conquer the Facebook isn't it?Nifty apps will be enough to draw people from the hype right? Me:Mabye when crack addicts decide alcohol is better. FakePeteCashmore:I can haz Mark for a cuzin?Plzzzzzzzz?
User comment: By: smallchou.com/blog » Facebook platform?[...] This is when it gets real interesting for all of those facebook app developers… Facebook Abandoning Its Open Platform Applications? [...]
User comment: By: AllUnicornsMustDie"Cousin" If you were using FireFox your spelling wouldn't suck as bad.
Visit here to subscribe to these commentsUser comment: By: FakePeteCashmoreYeah, FaceBook is the best. Mark Zuckerburg is a distant relative of mine (fifth cousin, twice removed)? Yeah, we're good friends him and I... The other day we were at a family gathering, and he's like "Hey Pete, do you remember back in '05 when like nobody read your blog, except your mom?" And I'm like "Um yeah, what's you point?" And he's like "Remember how I redirected .00000000000001% of FaceBook's traffic to your site, so you could actually get some readers? And then it crashed your FreeWebs server." At this point I see he's just messing with me, but I still play along. "Yeah, what's your point?" Then he get's this big smile on his face. "Where would you be without me, cuisin? Still scrubbing toilets at McDonalds, getting all teary eyed when your site passed the 5,000,000 Alexa rank?" So then I'm like "You know, I can say nice things about you on Mashable, or not nice things." So then he's like "You know, I can disable your Friend Adder Bots on Facebook, or ... actually I've got some new friends at Microsoft, so I can do a lot worse." And then he added "3 more investment rounds and I'll have 15 Billion in the bank. You've got what, a blog with 125,000 imaginary readers?" So then I shot back "We'll see how you like OpenSocial walking off with your userbase."
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