Feed URL changing this weekend

If you subscribe to my blog using RSS or ATOM, please check adamloving.com for a new Feed URL next week. I'm moving servers and moving to Wordpress.

You'll need the new URL to get the latest posts.

If you don't know what any of this means, just come back to adamloving.com next week :).

MySpace Platform App Development - Getting Apps Accepted to Directory

UPDATE: As of 18:05PST, both apps are approved. Now the long haul of promoting and iterative improvement. This will be fun!

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I'm at the MySpace dev jam this morning working through the the tech details of launching apps. I want to make sure I comply with the strict acceptance policies. The app rejection process has been incredibly frustrating due to the responses provided by the team rejecting the apps. We need more detailed responses if we are going to be able to make our apps comply. Also, apps getting stuck in "Suspended" mode makes it extremely difficult to dev and test.

Here are some of my sample rejections from the last two days. Obviously it has been a frustrating process of submit, wait, scratch head, submit, wait... We aren't allowed to reply to the emails for clarification.

Thanks to the MySpace team for hearing my concerns.


Sat 3/15/08 8:48 AM

Application Name: Stickers

URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=354061799

Reasons:

1. Images need to be used from Myspace Server, images from other sources are not allowed.

Adam: Didn't see this in the guidelines, and certainly accepted apps use images from all over the place. Hope to resolve today.




Sat 3/15/08 12:19 AM

Application Name: Stickers

Application URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=354532631

Reasons: Application is fine. But references to external server JavaScript and CSS are not allowed. Only Inline JavaScript and CSS are allowed.

Adam: Think guidelines only disallow external javascript and css on profile and home page (but allowed on canvas). Removed it anyway.



Fri 3/14/08 11:18 PM

Application Name: Secret Admirer

Application URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=354556476

Reasons: Application is like hello world. It does nothing.


Adam: App is simple, but functional with database back end via my extrernal web site. Funcitionality very similar to Honest Box (Approved application)




Fri 3/14/08 12:09 AM

Application Name: Secret Admirer

Application URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=354556476

Reasons: Application is not working.


Adam: Need more details - I've tested with two users in IE + Firefox on Mac + Windows.



Fri 3/14/08 12:03 AM


Application Name: Stickers

Application URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=354532631

Reasons: This application works fine but have links that redirects the window outside of MySpace domain


Adam: Only link outside myspace was an advertisement on canvas page. Thought that was legal. Tried making it target="_clear" instead of "_top"



Thu 3/13/08 11:09 PM

Application Name: Secret Admirer

Application URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=354297987

Reasons: Application logo violates copy rights issue. This logo is belong to google talk.


Adam: Umm, the image was not only completely different, it was a simple caption balloon. Licensed a different image from iStockPhoto just in case.


Thu 3/13/08 9:05 PM

Application Name: True Secrets

Application URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=354303420

Reasons: Application functionality is not complete as per description provided.


Adam: Description said app allowed sending anonymous messages between friends. Tweaked the wording, but not sure what they though was incomplete.


Thu 3/13/08 8:39 PM

Application Name: Stickers

Reasons: This application works fine but have links that redirects the window outside of MySpace domain

Application URL: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=354061799


Adam: Not sure what link they are referring too. Have an advertisement... but think that's legal. Removed links to canvas page from profile.



Thursday, 2:28 PM

your current application does not meet our criteria for approval for the following reason:

JavaScript Error, No functionality


Adam: Need more detail. I'm testing with two users on Mac + PC (IE, Firefox, Safari)

What's up with OpenSocial?

A good page was added to the OpenSocial google group today explaining where they are with some important issues (security, naming, roll-out). The good news is, there is more time to get ready (or keep cranking out the Facebook apps).

What's up with OpenSocial? - OpenSocial | Google Groups: "Do I have to work double time through the holidays to be ready for the OpenSocial launch? At this point it looks like we'll make a couple more revisions to the API before it's baked enough for 'launch'. This puts us into January before the API is ready to be implemented by containers, so expect some early adopters to have a public launch early 2008."

OpenSocial Data Flow / Logical Architecture

One more diagram from last night. This attempts to how an OpenSocial gadget relates to the host Web site.

Comparison of Facebook Platform and OpenSocial

Facebook’s platform can’t be directly compared to OpenSocial. Facebook is a closed set of technologies and formats defined by one company. Google’s OpenSocial is a standard defined by Google in collaboration with many companies. In general though, it is useful to understand what subset of functionality is covered by the OpenSocial standard.

Here is a quick chart that I created for a presentation at StartPad last night.



The main message last night was that OpenSocial is not ready for prime time, and probably won't be until early next year.

Facebook Ads

You are targeting women between 18 and 65 years old in the United States who like naruto, pokemon, or smurfs.

Facebook ad targeting is cool.

OpenSocial Development

I will be posting more on OpenSocial in the next week or so. I spent all last weekend working with it. It was a bit frustrating because a couple of the APIs weren't working for me on Orkut. However, I feel like I got my head around it.

In the meantime this wiki is a good resource. Specifically, I'm keeping an eye on the "List of OpenSocial Containers" section at the bottom of the page.

Main Page - OpenSocial Directory: "List of OpenSocial Containers"

Tips for Developing Viral Facebook Apps

I just got back from the Community Next “Platform” conference. I chose to go to this one rather than the “Graphing Social Patterns” conference (can’t these guys come up with better names for these things?) because Community Next looked like it had more of the real players - developers and investors who had actual built apps.

There were no magic technical tips from the guys that had apps with millions of users. Actually, it was funny how random and contradictory they sometimes were. For example, some apps rely heavily on invitations, others on notifications. Often it is important to get multiple apps working together, yet different people like “Zombies” from those that like “Vampires.” As you would guess, the success of these huge apps is mostly a result of being simple, fun, viral, interesting, appealing to a large audience and most of all fast. Frustratingly, launching within the first week the platform was commonly mentioned as a big part of their success.

It was great to hear the back stories behind the guy’s apps. The most interesting common thread was that often times the apps were invented or heavily influence by a girlfriend (Honesty Box, Fluff Friends) - or group of friends. The guys all had a good sense of what would work socially, or just wrote a feature that their friends wanted (Free Gifts).

RockYou has app analysis down to a science. I will follow their lead and be more methodical in instrumenting my apps. Before starting to code, analyze all the referral points in your app. What will the messaging be,? Will it spread easily between friends? What will the artwork look like? Will it be irresistible to users.? You have to convince yourself (mathematically if possible) that each user that joins will bring at least one other user with them.

Instrument your code to track all the links into and out of your app. Do A/B testing on text and graphics. Start with a rollout of a couple thousand users (buy advertising or promote the new app from an existing app) and watch your metrics to choose the best wording and images.

The conference included a 24 hour contest to build an app and launch it to the most people possible (without doing any advertising or cross promotion). The organizers added the criteria that the apps had to be both international and educational. The prize ($5,000) was sponsored by a company called Sometrics who launched a new App tracking site at the conference. I wasn’t planning on entering, I had had a a long week. My main goal being there was to network and meet people - not code.
I can’t resist a competition though, and when I saw only about 3 to 5 people/teams were considering entering I really wanted to go for it. Still, I couldn’t think of an idea worth entering. Inevitably, without advertisements, the winner would be relying heavily on their friends to add and promote the app - and I didn’t want to spam all my friends unless I had a decent idea.

So, I headed out to the evening’s event at a local bar. I met John about 20 minutes after I ordered my first drink. He had seen I was interested in the contest earlier (I kept asking how many people were going to enter) - so we stood there and drank and brainstormed. By 10:30 we had the idea for “Dumb Americans.” It took us until about 3:00 AM to get it done, John found the artwork, wrote and researched the content for the app while I coded. The main problem was that I waited until the last thing to get the Sometrics code installed and I had a hard time getting it working (no doubt partially due to the fact it was 4 in the morning). By 4:30 our stats were tracking, and we started contacting our friends to get them to try it out.

Back at the conference in the morning, I started going from person to person getting them to try our app. It was a roller coaster of a day, we weren’t sure our stats were correct - and another team had an app that was doing well. In the end, we had more users and won the contest! I met more people by asking them in person to install my app than I would have had I not entered the contest. My Facebook friends around the world came through smashingly. Next week I’ll likely do a Zuckerbucks promotion for it to really get it going.