DISQUS

In my opinion, this is pretty shady. However, given the historical trend of platform dominance over applications (microsoft IE, or any other app provided as "default") it isn't too surprising. It is clearly a "next step" in facebook's product, but undoubtedly should make developers weary of the apps they spend time making.

It will also be interesting to see how Apple's platform turns out as there has already been conflict between Amazon's MP3 store and iTunes. I'll be watching closely as I have a vested interest in the outcome.

I find it very interesting that most (if not all) of the advocates for "portability" only stand to benefit from it being a reality. People (mostly bloggers) can throw around the words "friend, data, and portability" in the same sentence together, but the fact of the matter is they really have no muscle in the argument until they build something people actually want to use. I picture the whole debacle like a dad with very small children pulling on his shorts to try to get him to do something. As implied, I very much agree with the view you expressed over the weekend about sites such as facebook being reduced to nothing more than a "well design communication platform" if it does in fact become a reality.

I wasn't aware that anyone used Myspace for anything other than promoting adult webcam sites. That aside, I think this is a rather good move in the long run as it will give more legitimate (defined as ones who are willing to pay for promotion) apps more attention than they otherwise would get. Otherwise, attention of users would directly correlate to how viral an app is (as well as how engaging it is). As we've seen with Facebook, the most "useful" apps rarely gain traction in the face of spammy applications with no other purpose but to make money (and subsequently fame) for the developers.