Facebook has 'thrown the entire startup world for a loop'

Why is it so important that users explicitly invite their friends to use an application?<p>Isn't it enough that the application shows up on the user's news feed?<p>I think the main reason that recent applications are not getting as many users is simply because there are now quite a lot of applications and users are sick of trying everything that comes along -- particularly as most of them are not very good.

Who you know is not that great predictor of what you like. Once the invites get annoying, Facebook should limit them, I think this is obvious. You shouldn't hope they will give you a mechanism to spam and irritate everyone.

I think it makes sense that first comers will have special benefits, and those who don't release fast enough will probably face some kind of restrictions. It's the same way for everyone.<p>On the other hand, apparently some companies had facebook api BETA access for weeks or months in advance to prepare for this.<p>If all companies had to race to build a product right away, I don't see why it's unfair for facebook to change the way things work after a month into it. But since some already had apps that were ready, it does seem to be very unfair.

Facebook is way ahead of MySpace when it comes the extent of the integration they offer, but they still have a long ways to go when it comes to the transparency of policy changes and managing their relationship to the developer community. <p>

well if you can opt out of having applications appear in your news feed then developers lose out on both friend invites and news feed growth - both of which apps such as ilike/slide had access to. <p>i think that's the point of the article - you can still use fb as a viral platform, it's just as viral for new apps as it is for the more established start ups.

Thank God. I had like a dozen invites for stupid apps.

Did you hear that everyone? Stop developing for Facebook now. Yup, pack up and go home.

ha, socialmoth moth showed up there.