Facebook Saturated With Apps

Not long ago, infopackets.com reluctantly reported news that Facebook had decided to allow its website partners to create their own applications.

Why worry? Concern that the clean and simple interface would be overrun by countless applications aimed at gathering user info for advertising purposes, that's why. Now, less than one month into Facebook's app venture, it looks like our fear may be coming true. (Source: infopackets.com)

Amit Gupta, the host of Wednesday's Facebook Developer Meetup event in New York City, said "I definitely think that people are initially going to run into 'app fatigue.'" Gupta, who developed a Facebook application for his photography newsletter, also admitted that he's already seen the annoyance toward apps in his own social circle.

Another application developer, Rachel Sterne, echoed Gupta's sentiment. "I've already seen people saying Facebook's getting too cluttered and I think people are already feeling a little overwhelmed," she said. "One of Facebook's biggest advantages used to be that it was the antiMySpace. It was simple and clean."

So far, around 1,500 applications have been produced. But that pales in comparison to the 40,000 developers that have requested to produce apps for Facebook. Nathan Freitas, creator of Cruxy, a set of tools that helps musicians and filmmakers share their digital content, is not surprised about the mad dash towards Facebook. "There's a land grab, because (a lot of) space has not been claimed," he said. "There's definitely a rush, and I think there's going to be a saturation point." (Source: news.com)

Of course, not everyone feels that the Facebook apps are overkill. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg said that although some users may find the third-party apps distracting, allowing users to build the site is consistent with Facebook's overall philosophy.

"At the end of the day it comes down to efficiency for us," Zuckerberg explained. "I just think that in the long run, there will be a set of really good applications" which enhance Facebook. "It's slightly discontinuous, but I think it's probably worth it to get the diversity of applications." (Source: webware.com)

When all is said and done, it'll be interesting to find out if Zuckerberg is indeed right, or if users are left longing for the good, old, simple Facebook.