Facebook, on a roll launching new features, just launched “Facebook Notes” which automatically imports posts from common blogging platforms (WordPress, Blogspot, even Myspace) and displays them in a new “Notes” section in your profile. Facebook automatically detects links in your profile to any supported blogging platform and allows you to import all yours posts.

Clearly Facebook is wanting to get into as many areas of social networking as possible, with the recent release of the Facebook API (developers.facebook.com). I’m glad they’re becoming more open, as well as trying to integrate with existing blogging platforms. Although I’m not sure quite what I think about their term “Notes,” I’m glad they are bringing blogging into an even more “mainstream audience”.

Facebook just launched developers.facebook.com, allowing developers to interact with Facebook through an API. This is a great step for Facebook. It will increase functionality as developers create new applications and makes the system more “open”. At the time of writing, there are already 2 applications in the “product directory”. One creates a photo mosaic of your facebook picture with your friend’s faces. The other is an expense tracking program. Neither are too exciting as of now, but the possibilities have just been opened. Check it out:

One key thing to note: the API does not allow the retrieval of member’s ever-so-crucial contact information (neither cell number nor email address).

My guess is Facebook is trying to protect its most valuable asset: a huge directory of contact information, while at the same time protecting its members from getting spammed as a result of the API. The API has a decent balance of allowing developers to do what they want, while still pointing a lot of traffic back to Facebook.com. For example, you call pull a lot of information about friends, photos, walls, and so on, but anytime you want to let a user actually do something on facebook (write a message, poke, make friends, etc), they have to be directed back to the site. This makes sense in regards to security and Facebook’s business model. Nobody can really screw up their own facebook account through a malicious API, nor can anyone easily create a Facebook competitor.

I’m looking for good ideas for an application using Facebook’s API. I have a couple ideas already in dealing with photos, which I may try and implement if someone doesn’t beat me to it. I’m just wondering how long until someone makes a Facebook “Hot or Not” website.

Edits:
Interesting: I just got my Facebook API key / “developer account” and was given an “app_id” of 151. So two products have been submitted to the directory, while 149 other people have received API keys already. It will be interesting to see how many of these turn into production applications, my guess is less than 5%.

I also like seeing the Facebook Developers Discussion Board. It’s getting to be active quickly and is a good place to keep an eye for applications in development.

I also believe Flock could benefit greatly from this by increasing its photo support from Flickr and Photobucket to include Facebook Photos, as well as notifications to wall changes, friend changes, etc. Note to self: email a flock community ambassador.

Look mom, I’m famous… the Yodel Anecdotal (Yahoo’s Corporate Blog) released a podcast on social networking that features me and 6 other interns discussing current trends in social networking. Go check it out.

I have officially completed my internship with Yahoo! in Sunnyvale, CA for the summer and am back home in beautiful Jacksonville, FL. Overall I had an incredible experience and learned a ton. My eyes were opened to the large amount of tech start-ups and large companies in the San Francisco Bay Area. I got to see the office buildings of Yahoo!, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, eBay, Adobe, Altera, McAffee, WebEx, Facebook, Flock, and Meebo. You just can’t do that anywhere else. I always knew there was a Silicon Valley, but living in the area and rubbing shoulders with so many talented people in one area was a new experience for me.

I also got to work with talented engineers at Yahoo! and learn a lot. I was able to take a half dozen courses on various front-end engineering topics to either refine my skills or teach me new stuff while I was there. I was able to see what the workflow in a large organization (a company of 12,000 people) is like – the good and the bad – and work on projects for a company which impacts half of the world’s internet users every month. Yes, they are still more popular than MySpace.

Having intern events with nearly 200 other interns was fun too. It was great being able to meet and become good friends with a bunch of talented young people. Thanks to this crazy new toy called the “internet,” hopefully we will be able to stay in contact.

What now? Back to school and doing freelance work. I’ve got a decent school schedule this semester: Differential Equations honors, Applications of Discrete Structures, Circuits I, Java II, and Technical Writing for Engineers. I’ll be moving in my Gainesville apartment in about a week and will be building a loft for my tiny bedroom…. more on that later hopefully.

Freelance work is starting to come back on strong with a few programming projects starting up for designer friends. I just launched a new dynamic website for UF Campus Crusade. The site is a redesign of an aged site, now written with CSS and web standards in mind. While building upon the existing PHP backend, I have also added some new features and increased usability. I did not have time to do everything I wanted to on it this summer, but hopefully it will still serve as a great resource and advertising for the UF ministry of 300+ students.

Yahoo! launched its corporate blog entitled the Yodel Anecdotal.  I have to admit, it’s a good name, way better than the one I suggested.  Paul and Doreen (other Y! interns) have been working hard on it, so I’m sure they’re happy they get to start the actually blogging now.  I also have had the privilege of being included in some upcoming content for the blog.

No, I won’t tell you what it is, you’ll have to wait and find out =).  Without plugging Yahoo! too much, this blog is exactly what I wish existed in March when I was trying to decide whether or not to accept the internship.  There is a great video tour as the first post which shows most of what I see on a day to day basis at work.   Don’t tell anyone, but since I don’t drink coffee, I’ve been ordering chocolate milk every morning at the free coffee bars.