Here are the things we’re excited about and the changes we’re a pinch anxious about. You need to keep in mind however that none of this really matters until the changes go live and we get to see exactly what the changes look like and how they will impact us.

The Good

Emails - Facebook is now going to give all apps the ability to ask the user for their current email address. Some think this is a step back as email is an old and archaic way of communicating. What is good about this is that it gives the apps that work hard to generate users the comfort of knowing that they don’t need to rely on Facebook to connect with them.

Canvas – Another step forward is the ability for developers to create a canvas so users will feel more like they’re on the app’s page rather than one tucked inside Facebook. This, along with the email request, is a strong message from Facebook. It implies the user and his/her information isn’t owned solely by Facebook.  It also indicates that Facebook understands the importance of the Developer Network and the success it has brought both them and the companies using the network!

The Stream – Developers love the stream and while many hate the recent changes to the stream despite the blogs posts from earlier this week the stream shall for the most part remain, unchanged.

The Bad (Heck given our glass is half full mentality, I will actually call this – The Stuff we are a tad concerned about) – Notifications, this is the one that most developers are nervous about. First off notices are going to disappear; developers won’t have the ability to communicate using this method anymore. To replace it users will have a dashboard that will appear to the left of the stream, it should work better for the user which is great, honestly! What concerns developers is if the user doesn’t have their app book marked it will/may be difficult for the user to see these messages.  Worst case scenario is that the user will outright ignore them. This really is one of those things that could work out well for developers or could dramatically make things worse.

User to user communication – This doesn’t affect Datepad because our users communicate through the site/application. Today apps that allow user to user communication use the notification box and going forward they will be placed within the inbox. This is something that most gaming apps are very concerned with.

I have only touched on a handful of the major changes coming in the next 6 months. Most of them are good for both users and developers and some well, we’ll have to wait and see. As always Datepad is looking forward to working with Facebook and more importantly creating a great user experience for our members!

Whether you come directly to Datepad.com or find us through our Facebook App we’ve made the process of joining as simple as possible. It literally takes seconds to join Datepad.

We encourage all of you to check out the new site and do let us know what you think. We’ve added a new thread in our forums to discuss the new site. Be candid, good or bad we want to hear it!

Now that this is done we’re busy building more tools and features for our members. Be sure to check back in the coming weeks as we have a ton of cool things we’re working on!

Thanks from all of us at Datepad!

Well AOL, a company that has had numerous issues over the years has done something so ridiculously short citied. They have a dating website personals.aol.com, nothing new here. What’s new are their search results. If you take any dating keyword, online dating, internet dating, free online dating, literally any dating keyword they appear #1. Their search engine is powered or as they say enhanced by Google, well Google isn’t doing this.

I hope anyone reading this will stop using AOL search, given these and other shady business practices I am not sure too many are!

Well today there is a camera that could be designed specifically for this crowd.

The Samsung ST500 has a screen not only on the back of the camera which is traditional, they have also placed one on the front of the camera so you can see what you are shooting (which is most likely you!).

For more info Techcrunch has done a nice little writeup about this new product.

Disclaimer: Most of us have at least one friend that annoyingly takes photos everywhere you go.  While annoying, this same person is probably quite good at taking a great photo of you.  Save the money on the camera and get them to do the hard work. Maybe they even know how to work Photoshop?

Facebook is  trying to make the application network a better place. One of their major concerns is spam; they don’t want apps sending more notices and friend requests than need be. Many apps that have been successful on the network simply won’t qualify. Sadly these spammy practices are the main reasons many applications have done so well.

During the verification process Facebook was also concerned about the look and feel of the application; they don’t want users to think the apps are created by Facebook. Many developers have made their applications practically mimic the exact look and feel of a Facebook page. For the average none tech savvy user this could come across as misleading so I understand why Facebook is doing this.

The big question is was it worth it? It’s too early to tell and this might be tough to measure regardless. Facebook has added special areas within the application directory to highlight Verified apps, so in theory this should drive more traffic. Truth be told most applications growth is through the news feed and through friend requests. What I do know as a user is that if I were faced with two similar applications, one being verified and the other not,  I would be inclined to go the verified route. Building credibility in any market is tough and in the online world, whether it is a social network or a dating site, one could argue it is even tougher.

Another more recent change was to the application directory and the application profile pages. The directory has moved its focus towards the verified applications. These applications have been verified by Facebook. What does this mean exactly?  Aside from a developer paying $375 USD, we’re not totally sure. Datepad has been told by Facebook that we’re in the queue and hopefully that means we’ll receive our verified application status shortly!  The profile pages are now more similar to the public profile pages mentioned above and again this gives Datepad the ability to better communicate with our users. If you have any questions about the application or just want to make a comment, this is the place to do it.

We are always looking at new ways to get the word out about Datepad; more members are always our focus. Providing Facebook pages and applications that have value added features and content will continue to be our goal going forward.

In the coming weeks we have some big news, so stay tuned!

All the best,

The Datepad Team!

]]> http://blog.datepad.com/2009/06/05/datepad-and-facebook/feed/ http://blog.datepad.com/2009/04/30/facebook-application-update/ http://blog.datepad.com/2009/04/30/facebook-application-update/#comments Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:23:26 +0000 admin http://blog.datepad.com/?p=61 Things are moving along nicely in the FB application world.  We’re quite excited about the rapid growth we’ve seen over the last two months and look forward to unveiling new features to Datepad and to our Facebook application.

So far we’ve hit the 6 figure mark and today we sit at 110,106 monthly active users which puts us as one of the more popular dating applications. From a development stance we continue to tinker with the communication we have with our members. It becomes a bit of a fine art as you don’t want to overdo things and spam your members nor do you want to give up getting users back to the site. We hate applications or web sites that send too many notifications and emails and, trust me, in this industry there are plenty of them, especially on Facebook.

With Facebook ’s new streaming API more developers are going to come up with clever ways of using the feed. We have implemented a new horoscope widget that isn’t growing exactly how we would have hoped but is driving traffic to the application. While the new stream capabilities will give many app developers the ability to drive traffic through the feed, dating is a personal experience and does limit a dating application’s ability to exploit the stream. We do have some great ideas in the queue and will share them with you in future posts.

We now have many competitors that are doing very well with the iphone application network and some of the new design ideas and apps are quite good. The future is, without a doubt, in applications and making your site and systems accessible through more than just one channel. Web sites need to be more than just a web site; social media is forcing us to become more of a brand than just a single domain. Setting it and forgetting it just doesn’t work anymore!.

As always we appreciate any feedback you can give us; on the site, our application on Facebook and anything else you wish to comment on.

No one will ever forget the over 500 people who paid their respects, who cried over the loss of you and who rejoiced in your ‘can do’ attitude that touched everyone you met and everything you did.  There have been a lot of changes here at Datepad over the past year, and we have you to thank for the inspiration behind what is becoming a growing force in the internet dating world.  Thank you Dave, we miss you!

We have to admit it took us a little longer to start using Twitter.

Our Twitter page is DatepadDating. We will keep this profile busy with our daily dating articles, news happening on the site and any other interesting tid bits about running a free internet dating site.

First off let me tell you first that the Facebook developer network is an amazing tool and truly is a win, win. The developer has the ability to access the 200 million or so active members currently using Facebook, this is much easier said than done but there are very few opportunities where a company can immediately have access to such a massive network. I have to applaud what Facebook has been able to accomplish is such a short time. Nothing is ever perfect and there certainly have been a lot of users complaining about the recent changes to the feed and home page. In the end Facebook IS winning the social network war because the product is, well, really good!

And on Facebook’s side they win because the developer network and it’s 60 thousand or so applications have had a major impact on their growth. When applications become popular it keeps users on the site longer and in the end this equates to more revenue for Facebook.

So here are some of the issues - more so areas I think Facebook could improve on.

1.    The new user review system – Every application has an “About Page” within this page users have the ability to rate an application on a score of 1 to 5 stars. What has changed recently is users that don’t have your application installed have the ability  to vote. On top of this they don’t have to leave a comment when voting. I have no issue with a user leaving a candid comment about our application, but the minimum requirement should be that they have actually used the application. This would alleviate some of the random negative reviews that all developers have recently seen a surge in.

2.    Commenting on reviews - Another area I would love to see added is the ability for an administrator to comment on a review, much like commenting on a wall post. We have had some users complain that our application is lacking certain things or that we are doing things that go against our privacy policy, in all of these cases this simply wasn’t true. Because of this I would love to be able to reply to a users comments and let them know how to access a certain page or feature. This would help other users and give us and other developers the ability to retain a client and/or mitigate loosing potential users from not joining because they see a negative review.

There are of course some technical issues with the Facebook developer platform, we’ll leave those comments and review for another post.

Overall things are pretty good in the Facebook developer world, like any piece of software nothing is ever perfect. The good news is software is always an evolving entity and we fully expect Facebook to continue making improvements. Maybe if we’re lucky one of the decision makers will read this post. Fingers crossed!