Facebook Apps On Any Website | Hacker News Reader

Facebook Apps On Any Website

developers.facebook.com

Surely this is not that big a deal - The title's misleading - in particular, this announcement doesn't enable "facebook apps on any website" in a way that wasnt previously possible since the api was first released, pre-platform even.

The point here is that they've released a javascript interface to the api that sits alongside the existing ones for other languages (php, ruby etc). The news is that now you can build FB apps without having to use server-side code. Can anyone suggest a "useful use" for this, where you wouldn't want to use a server-side language..?

TC, mashable etc all seem to have missed the point here due to misunderstanding the technicalities. Now, if FB _did_ open up a platform to enable _existing_ FB apps to be embedded on web pages external to facebook (like google gadgets for your webpage) - now _that_ would be interesting. Thats what everyone is implying, but sadly it isnt so this time..

There's really nothing new here at all. Just a Javascript library to make calls to the API.

It would be cool if users coming to their site could just put in some information and then you could import all their data and network. It would make facebook essentially a totally open data platform. I wouldn't have to bother trying to get an ap on facebook too.

Data exportability makes things more valuable, not less.

I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not. In a way it could work a lot like openid where the user only has to log into Facebook.

It would be nice, if they just joined with the OpenID community though. I mean, out of all the sites that is a virtual address book (outside of your e-mail), Facebook could be the best OpenID provider out there. They don't even need to give the contacts and the network, but just the information (b/c the user would have to enter it anyway).

There is huge business potential for Facebook as it becomes the central hub to sign into other sites and it has huge potential for publishers who want to access the Facebook base. I'm guessing a business guy though is afraid that it would kill their competitive edge by being more open though.

That would be awesome if they joined. If only we could get Google to extend open social to Facebook... I don't think these guys are realizing what they could do if they worked together. And it's not like it would cost them anything either.

Awesome. This seems work similar to how the Google Maps API works.

I assume it's safe to include your application key client side?

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