Source: besttechInfo.com

A rumour that spread like wildfire across the web a month ago has now metamorphosed into a big, exciting News butterfly. Facebook is on a journey to take on the might of Apple and Google in the mobile market, much like Leonidas and his 299 fellow under-dressed men.

Project Spartan, as it is known, is Facebook’s plan to develop their own new App Store; think iTunes but through Facebook. While not too much has been said yet (Spartans are men of action, not words) it is not too difficult to imagine what the project could lead to.

This will allow for e.g. making better use of some features like Facebook Credits for sales, in-app purchases and thus making more profit.  It is a clever battle-plan which the Financial Times and Playboy have already kicked off.

Apparently about 80 outside developers and companies (including Farmville and The Huffington Post) are contributing to the project, and we also know now that Apple is giving a certain level of support.

This effort from Facebook to bring a whole new experience to the iOS devices is something to celebrate. It would be nice to see this new platform being spread through other mobile devices, let’s say… Android OS for instance!
It may very well push developers and the rest of the industry to have more interest in HTML5 and CSS3 features, pushing forward new web standards.

source: Slashgear.com

The exciting news for our clients however is that it is a new contender in the app market with Facebook’s 750-million users behind the top brand.

Thought Den’s experience with the technology, HTML5 and Javascript will allow our clients pretty much instant entry to the service.

Now less talk about the naked men fighting please!

(Dollar heart from masscorporation)

People’s profiles on Facebook and FriendFeed purposefully aren’t viewable by any old wierdo class-mate looking to “catch-up” and ironically the same applies to Google’s Stalk-bot (that’s our new name for the Google Bot =) ). Even though it’s job is to read every site and index it for their search, it still can’t get in to look at all these peoples’ personal pages.

This effectively is blocking Google’s revenue stream as there’s a LOT of information they can’t index on these profiles. So it means the data Facebook then owns is worth a LOT more, because they have something even the biggest tech firm can’t see.

Interesting to see what Google’ll have to do next, GoogleBook?

Also as a side note, notice on the Jesus-esque Guardian picture of Mark Zuckerburg how shirt cuffed hand on the bottom left looks like it’s there for a little more than the picture… She should take that watch off first, it’ll be cold.

So the Facebook status box doesn’t seem like such a good idea. Why is a virtual machine asking me what’s on my mind? It’s not going to offer advice and I’m not comfortable sharing my innermost worries with everyone’s News Feed.

So what is better question and response to expect? Here’s some ideas!

These were created using Firebug, Inspect & Edit. Feel free to #hashtag any of your own on twitter with, #allyourfacebookarebelongtous

That’s the type of question you’d ask a friend down the pub when they’re feeling down and need to talk? Something that can prompt the release of their deepest feelings and allows you to listen and understand how they feel. Something that I prefer to talk about face-to-face, one-on-one, mano-o-mano with beer in hand.

So are people going to feel comfortable broadcasting their innermost pains, worries out to everyones’ News Feed? In turn should we be feeling comfortable offering support and a shoulder to cry on with comment responses? In turn do I even want to be bombarded with general negativity every-time I log in!

Just because Facebook is asking the question I don’t have to answer it, I know. But I wonder about those younger than me. Generations that feel more comfortable sharing their feelings over text & e-mail. Will they feel happy sharing their ‘**** I fe3l Cr4p cos Jeeny just dumped me, :’( @}–>   -’,—-’, with everyone? And in turn, is that healthy for them to not be doing it face-to-face? Or infact, should I feel comfortable with it?

For now, I think I’ll be going down the pub to chat through my innermost feelings. At least then I get a beer.

The new Facebook has been released but what are some of the changes about?

Navigating the profile

The profiles have been re-designed to allow you an easier navigation of all the ‘information’ people want to post up about themselves. I suppose with it normally expanding vertically 30 Million Pixels high to accommodate information was becoming tiresome, so tabs will help divide up the mess… I mean relevant information.

With a wider layout they’re not only opening out the sides of the design to counter app bloating, this could also open up more room for bigger pictures, videos and making use of the space allowing people to enjoy each other’s media and bigger adverts.

The tabs are also going to open up screen real estate for more interesting apps to take precedence on people’s profiles, which is good news for any virals like the Euroball widget. I wonder if it’s going to start making people wanting to organise their profiles more often too?

Old

New

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5YbwfOucET8[/youtube]

They packaged the whole product to explore the lands completely through your browser, no need for a separate client application, just download a package (windows only) and install it to run in Internet Explorer or Firefox! A full 3D world in your browser to go explore, to read more about the product check out Lively.com but now read to open up thoughts on the wider aspects of Lively.

Offshoots

The package initially makes me wonder what kind of extra offshoots are going to start appearing from the ‘player’,  if I can embed parts of a digital world on my Facebook, blogs etc… it could mean having a window into a virtual world at all times.

Imagine this, you pulling up to your mate’s Facebook Profile in the evening and see in one of their application panel (past the Zombies, FriendWall etc…) a world which is moving, viewed like a quick web-cam following their avatar running around in a space chatting to some mates and doing silly stuff.

All you’d have to do is click, and go join them in their digital escapades. Suddenly with the whole application being viewable in a browser player, we can start crossing over to these spaces quickly.

The links with their Open Social (if Facebook joined!) are blindingly relative too, now the oppurtunity for another world to start integrating with our flat faced Social web-sites is apparent. Let’s wait till it becomes institutionalised like the Social Networking sites (facebook, bebo, myspace), then I’ll eat my digital hat.

Got the time?

However this does bring up some valid arguments for it’s use, what are going to be doing in that world? Just hanging out?

Is there really time in our lives to spend sitting in-front of our computers pretending to be in another world? Personally I’m busy enough with singing in the evenings, spending time at the Pervasive media studio looking at new technologies like ‘Multiple phone calling’ and sleeping! Possibly in the long term we’ll find it’ll be used a bit more in the Winter when people are staying in getting a bit bored and cold, but for now I’m struggling where to fit it onto my diary on a social level.

Why everyone can play there

I suppose the most exciting part about the whole Lively release is the brand it’s released under, Google.

In itself, Google represents a tool who is primarily accessible to any sex, race, class or age and most people use it daily. In turn, the same feelings will be passed with those who discover Lively. Suddenly we’ve got a 3D world who’s only barriers to entry are, “do you have a browser & do you know who Google are?”. Not much is it.

This means for those normal people who’ve read odd extracts in the papers about Second Life/ World of Warcraft and imagining it’s “something only for geeks” will now have a new social network where they can join in on the 3D avatar based fun and not feel so out their comfort zone. It’s Google, not Dungeons and Dragons!

Gaming

As we’re in the same space with Simon, we have Gaming on our minds quite frequently and it’s sparked another notion, “with the platform being so open to any everyone, is there a market for the biggest MMORG ever?”.

Already there’s links games like Fight Club, but imagine if the Lively platform opened up an API for huge rooms, then companies would start being able to produce Mass Multiplayer Online Role Play Games on the pre-built open platform.

They wouldn’t have any distribution, server load, login worries, all they’d have to do is program the game interface, rules etc… and there’d be barely any bigger technical issues to deal with.

Phew

I’m a bit excited by it all and most of my thoughts are widely speculive, but often with Google, things seem to go that way. All I have to do now is wait for them to release it on mac…

Apparently my ‘phone-losing house-mate‘ hasn’t checked hers in a few days too and it raised the point relating to my pervasive weather post.

We’re more likely to interact with our desktops over winter’s cold months, but we’ve got our phones and iPods out when the summer’s rolling.

That’ll mean we’ll see slumps in the Pervasive market during certain warm seasons in comparison to Winter.

Have you been using your Desktop much these last few days. Also, should Facebook be grabbing more of the pervasive market by pushing their mobile version over the Summer months?