If you’re a dough-faced Dustin Hoffman, the future is in plastic, but if you’re a dough-faced billionaire whose last name rhymes with “Buckerberg,” the future is in apps. In its latest pre-IPO shenanigans, Facebook announced the App Center – a space it’s hoping people will flock to in order to fill up on apps (no, not appetizers, thank you). All Things D reports: “it’s not exactly a proper ‘App Store’ competitor to take on the likes of Apple or Google’s respective hubs. It’s more of a centralized location so that everyone — users and developers alike — knows where to go to find Facebook apps. And that didn’t exist before.”
The keyword in that quote is “developers.” Facebook is hoping that, with the App Center, developers will be more inclined to build apps specifically for the site. Chances are, if you visit the hub, you will see different apps than I do. That’s because, in addition to featuring highly-rated apps, Facebook bases what you see at the center by things you and your friends like.
A big change for developers is that Facebook will now offer paid apps. Before this announcement, developers could only earn cash through in-app purchases, like when someone buys supplies in Farmville.
So, why the focus on apps all of the sudden? The idea is to keep people on Facebook. No wondering eyes means more time spent looking at ads. And let’s not forget about all the data scraping opportunities that can come out of more people adding more apps.
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