Facebook and MySpace August 20th, 2007
So I started tinkering with the Facebook Application API just last night and was surprised how quickly one can get an application up and running. The documentation on Facebook’s developer wiki and website are remarkably complete given that this service has only been available for a short time. Facebook really gets it. They have a great network with a lot of users, but they also realize that attracting developers is very important. The Facebook Platform goes a long way towards making life easy for potential developers.
MySpace, on the other hand, is a very different story. The Facebook Application that I’m writing, which I’ll talk more about later, is pulling data from MySpace. It is absolutely appalling the amount of disarray that makes up MySpace profiles. Not only does MySpace not offer any sort of public API, but the profiles themselves are a mishmash of haphazard CSS and HTML that make the US Government look efficient and lean. I’m shocked that they are still the largest social network out there at around 100 million users compared to Facebook’s 20 million. Even so, I’m still placing my bets on Facebook.
