Gawker: valleywag, top friends

Facebook redesign exposed birth dates

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Here's a good way for Facebook to keep its demographic young: IT security firm Sophos reports that early on during Facebook's beta test of a new user-profile design, the site revealed its members birth dates, even if members had set that information to private. That'll keep the Olds who turn 43 every year off the site. Facebook needs to be very careful when it comes to privacy — the site would like to figure out a way to target ads based on user's personal data, and wants to make sure users are comfortable inputting accurate information. And Facebook is being hypocritical: When Slide's Facebook Top Friends app revealed users' birth dates, Facebook temporarily kicked the app off the website. Of course, we won't hold our breath waiting for Facebook to suspend its entire website. But maybe it could back down from its holier-than-thou pose that the platform is a level playing field and Facebook is just another player? Yes, please.

New Facebook feature makes Slide's Top Friends app redundant

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:40:00 EDT

If you're the application developer and they're the platform owner, you have to know death can come at any moment: Create a popular, simple application, and the platform owner might just rip you off in their next release. It's happened to Max Levchin's Slide, maker of the popular Facebook widget Top Friends. With its latest profile redesign, Facebook now allows users to specify which friends they'd like to display to profile visitors. (See how Facebook's version works in the image above and you'll note that with the friends I've selected, my goal is to intimidate profile visitors with my powerful connections.) Before you feel too sorry for Slide, note that this is a feature MySpace has long offered. Slide, seeing that Facebook lacked it, promptly cooked up Top Friends, which filled the void. Top Friends is Slide's second most popular application with nearly 1.5 million daily active users. On the strength of those user numbers, Slide has raised $50 million in a recent financing round, and is opening an ad-sales office in New York. We asked for Slide's reaction. They were surprisingly chipper!

"Yes, we view this feature as directly competitive to a relatively small part of our Top Friends functionality," Slide's Keith Rabois told us. "A developer on any platform must expect that their popular, but simple, features will be absorbed into platform over time."

But none of this has the salesman in Rabois down. He goes on:

You can see that Top Friends has a very large number of complex features that have a complicated back-end (Awards, Visual Personality, Music, world-class skins) — we expect those will continue to be long-term strategic advantages over other large developers and the platforms themselves

The secret of social networking revealed: world-class skin! We always suspected as much.

Slide's Top Friends back on Facebook after third-party privacy audit

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Facebook's third-most popular widget, Slide's Top Friends, is back after Facebook suspended it on June 26. (The offense: displaying Top Friends' users birthdays and other private information that wouldn't normally be visible on Facebook.) What took so long? Following the suspension, Slide wanted to call its apps the most secure on Facebook. To feel comfortable doing so, it contracted a third-party audit firm to review its applications and source code, Slide exec Keith Rabois told us. "The issue with Top Friends was fixed immediately," Rabois told us, "But as you might imagine an independent audit takes time to perform." Elsewhere on Facebook, Slide's privacy troubles seem to be spreading.

Slide rival Rock You's Super Wall saw traffic plummet 70 percent in the last week. InsideFacebook's Justin Smith speculates the dip is due to "some kind of punitive action against the application" over privacy concerns by Facebook, "perhaps by restricting feed access or by lowering the application’s notification or invitation limits." Another source tells us Flixster, the widgetmaker behind the Movies app, is going through similar punishment from Facebook over privacy concerns.

Facebook suspends Max Levchin's Slide over security loophole

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Until last night, Top Friends by Slide was Facebook's third most popular widget, judging by daily active users and installations. Today, Top Friends is no longer on Facebook at all. News.com says its because pesky Canadian Byron Ng discovered a security loophole in the widget that allowed any user with Top Friends installed to view more profile information — birthdays, gender, and relationship statuses — then Facebook allows strangers to see. Ng discovered a similar loophole in SuperWall, an app made by Slide rival, RockYou. But RockYou already fixed the problem and SuperWall remains on the Facebook platform. No word on whether this little tidbit has Slide founder Max Levchin in this hospital from punching holes in a wall or two. (We hear the rivalry is a little intense).

Slide to stop making Facebook apps

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 12:20:00 EDT

Slide VP Keith Rabois says the widgetmaker is done making widgets — at least for Facebook. Rabois told SIlicon Alley Insider that Slide wants to focus on improving its existing apps, like SuperPoke and Top Friends. The company also knows it needs to start figuring out how to make enough money to justify its $550 million valuation. Last week, Slide hired AOL's former director of national sales, Jason Bitensky, to head up a new New York office. Money aside, Slide's announcement may be little more than politicking.

Facebook's upcoming redesign eliminates much of the viral growth widgetmakers such as Slide enjoyed during the platform's first year and these developers aren't happy about the changes. Last month an executive at one of the widgetmakers told us this lost enthusiasm for the Facebook platform seriously damaged the company's value.

FB's valuation is driven by the perception it can serve as a platform (or launching pad) for derivative businesses. Without that perception, FB is a $3-5 B company. Period.