Well, it’d be like this: www.goosh.org.
Once again, it’s the simple things…
Tags: Google, On the Web, Programming, UI, User Interface
The Zombomatic 3000 game which Terralever created for MiniClip.com is currently the third most popular game on the MiniClip.com site.
I am a personal fan (I like Zombomatic more than the later released Tunnel Trouble) of the gameplay, concept and execution. However, even with the game being promoted (it is featured on the home page) I would have guessed that the plug-in installation would have marginalized its potential.
Could Zombomatic make it to #1?
Tags: Games, Programming, Silverlight, Tunnel Trouble, ZombomaticFacebook previously announced the availability of limited profile data to search engines. I’ve checked here and there and hadn’t seen any evidence, but Facebook profile data is now definitely being returned (by Google at least). A search for “Scott McAndrew” (yeah, that’s vain, I know) shows the Google result to be a standard search result listing.
When not logged-in to Facebook, a click-through to the Facebook site displays the limited profile data as shown in the screen-capture below. Although not logged in, and likely not an acquaintance of mine, you are still taunted with the offer to Poke me (please don’t).
Part of the excitement about Facebook Applications, lies in the ability to reach Facebook’s every growing, engaged user-base. That’s nice, but if you’re looking to launch on Facebook, you likely have grandiose visions for your application. A week or go or so the lack of visibility outside Facebook’s gates was addressed by Justin Mitchell in a Facebook blog posting entitled “Public Canvas Pages”.
In broad strokes: Facebook’s firewall quietly invited Googlebot to take a closer look at Facebook applications earlier this month. Depending on new settings controlled by the application developer Facebook applications can be fully functional to the casual browser (not require logging in to Facebook whatsoever), require login to be in any way functional, or (the most likely) fall somewhere in between the two extremes. Developers can find more information in Facebook’s Developer Wiki.
Per an October blog entry, applications that are in the Facebook Application directory are also automatically showing up in Google search results regardless of their stance on non-Facebook user functionality. If you search on “Apple Student Gallery” you’ll find a Terralever-built application’s directory listing in Google’s search results.
In the (relatively calm) wake of last month’s MySpace/Google Open Social announcement, Facebook quietly blogged their counter-punch today: Facebook’s platform is that open, too. If you want to leverage Facebook’s innards to push out your own social networking site, have at it. As Open Social has yet to launch, the question has to be one of relevance (or lack thereof) at this point. An excerpt from the aforementioned blog entry by Facebook’s Ami Vora (emphasis and footnoting mine):
[…]we also want to share the benefits of our work by enabling other social sites to use our platform architecture as a model. In fact, we’ll even license the Facebook Platform methods and tags to other platforms. Of course, Facebook Platform will continue to evolve, but by enabling other social sites to use what we’ve learned, everyone wins* — users get a better experience around the web, developers get access to new audiences, and social sites get more applications.
This is just another step toward the vision of easy, open sharing of information. We look forward to supporting other social sites as they release their own platforms, and look forward most of all to the added benefit for developers and users.
* I’m relatively certain that Google, MySpace, and the rest of the Open Social club don’t include themselves as a part of the ‘everyone’ cited in the Facebook blog entry.
Tags: Facebook, Facebook Applications, Facebook Platform, Facebook Platform Architecture, Google, MySpace, Online Marketing, Open Social, Peer to Peer, Privacy, Programming, Quick Hits, Social Media, Social Networking, Web ApplicationsBug Labs is bringing a mashup mentality to hardware by way of a series of modules which snap together not unlike the way Legos would. The BUGbase and the BUGmodules don’t look like children’s toys, nor do they look like Radio Shack geek tech. They look like something you might pay good money for at BestBuy.
Ease of development is emphasized. Projects begin with a BUGbase which is described on their web site as “…a fully programmable and ‘hackable’ Linux computer…” Examples of modules you can snap to the base include a GPS unit, a Digital Camera/Videocam, a Motion Detector, and a color, touch-sensitive LCD screen.
Bug Labs envisions device building as an experience that can be enjoyed by both the novice and the advanced do-it-yourselfer. Since the hardware clicks together, the next engineering challenge is the underlying software. A description of the software environment from the BUG site is quoted below:
BUG is built entirely with open source software. BMI, the BUG Module Interface, attaches devices to the BUG. Device-based services and applications are dynamically available based on which modules are connected to the BUG. Higher up the stack is Java, which hosts a service-oriented component runtime called OSGi.
As the development community shares their hardware and software creations a programming-free scenario also emerges. In a recent podcast Bug Labs’ CEO Peter Semmelhack describes a future where a builder combines a few bricks together and interfaces with the BUG SDK where (s)he is presented with the top applications currently being used for that hardware configuration. Software can be downloaded onto the device without the need to start from scratch.
The BUGbase, aforementioned modules and SDK are all slated to ship before the end of the year.Interested? You may want to catch BUG Labs speaking at SXSW 2008. For more information including a list of additional modules visit the BUG Labs web site.
Tags: Applications, BUG Labs, BUGbase, BUGmodules, Hardware, Industrial Design, Java, LEGO, LEGO Mindstorms, Lego NXT, Lego RCX, linux, Open Source, OSGi, Peter Semmelhack, Programming, SXSW
Do you have a Facebook application you are working on? Do you have something compelling to say about Facebook development? Want some feedback? There is a soap box waiting for you.
I briefly blogged about the Facebook Developer Garage Phoenix a ways back (it’s coming up on November 14th). One of the traditions of the Facebook Developer Garage is to open up the mic for anyone who is developing or conceptualizing a Facebook App who would like to get some feedback from the collection of Facebook minds at the Garage.
It’s a unique opportunity—it’s not often that you get have the ear of a group of Facebook App developers and marketers (including the likes of Dave Morin, an incredible mind from Facebook).
That mic is also open for those who would like to speak about Facebook applications from a marketing perspective, what’s happening with social networking, etc.
If you’re interested in speaking, let me know-I’ll put you in the right hands.
And, of course, if this sounds like something you’d like to experience come to the event!
Tags: Events, Facebook, Facebook Developers Garage, FBML, Online Marketing, Programming, Terralever, Web Applications