There Is Future For Widgets In Facebook?

Questions?email Derek		Questions?email Avatar

There Is Future For Widgets In Facebook?

by Avatar	Stumble this!	October 07th 2008

Nick O`Neill (AllFacebook Maverick*) thinks there is none and that all Facebook Widget Developers should just pack the bags and leave the Facebook House immediately as he shows you this chart to welcome you in a post that shouts:

The Future of Widgets on Facebook: Dead

My take?. that when it comes to Widgets in Facebook. we cannot forget that Nick HATES THEM. having that into account. i see where his numbers come from. but i put that more to the shift in habits and readjusting the overall Facebook userbase is going through with the new design.

This design will be the end of Widgets?. not really. the most common kind of widgets and the most generic ones should do go away. but there are many Widgets and Widgets-app in Facebook for they to just disappear. what i think is that the design shift will have a focus shift in widgets and widgets apps too and that this means that we will see funny and blingy widgets to go away and be replaced by utility widgets, info widgets and game widgets. of all levels. so there will be widgets, there will be widget-apps (widgets that extend with some user interaction beyond the core widget) and that we will finally start to see true Facebook Applications that live to the potential of what the Facebook App Platform was supposed to be just as Facebook is finally showing with its new design that it got future. even if most of the new facebook design happens to be riffed from many sources. what it matters is Facebook Social Graph, its back end and its app platform.

Because Nick chart applies to Apps in general. they are having some serious readjusting woes overall. it is not just Widgets. it is Facebook as whole the one that is changing.

The Bottom line: Widgets will not become extinct inside Facebook. they will just change focus as Facebook itself changes. this should be reflected not immediately but starting maybe in a month as the year ends.

But as i have said in the past. this should show a lesson to those that invest everything into a single platform without a plan B.