paid content is back.

Another great song by Jasper: Neidlos.

(@English readers: if you just could understand his songs - great poetry!)

A few minutes ago a press release from Facebook arrived my inbox. Here are the latest and hottest news from F8, Facebook’s Developer conference:

1. There will be a deeper integration of Apps and Feeds - however, the press release gets not concrete about this topic …
2. There will be a sandbox for Facebook Connect. With Facebook Connect you build on the social graph of Facebook, but you still have an external website. Facebook Connect is used for authentication, identity and relationship management and privacy control. Early adopters are Digg, SixApart and Citysearch. Followers will be Amiando (gratulation, guys!), CNET, Twitter, Seesmic, Vimeo, Xobni Red Bull, CBS, Disney and a lot of other known companies!
3. The Translation Application, which Facebook used to translate its own website, is now available for any app developer. Great idea!
4. The Great Apps program will honour trustworthy, meaningful and well-designed applications. “Great
   Apps will gain greater visibility on Facebook, earlier access to new features and more feedback
   from Facebook. Facebook will open the Great Apps selection process to developers in
   September.” says the press release. One Great App is for example iLike.
5. The Application Verification program will ensure that apps that participate in this program are secure and transparent for the user. The press release: “Verified applications will benefit from added visibility on Facebook.”
6. Via the fbFund Facebook will award nearly $10 million to the top 25 applications! Users can also vote for apps!
7. Finally, there is a new developer website that includes a better usability and trusted case studies.

Puuh, we are living in exciting times! So have a good time!

The last week we spend a lot of time working on our Facebook app. If you haven´t seen the videos yet, watch them here and there. The goal was to build one Facebook app in one week. We knew that this is a tough challenge. The app is not finished yet, but the week was really fun.

On Monday André (top right) joined our team. We really appreciate to work with him, because he has very dry sense of humour.

It started all in the innovation lab at the GATE Garching. We had to think about a concept for our app. I think we really discussed every argument. This took us hours. After this was finished, we immediately started programming. At the beginning Sebastian and André worked on their own.

At the second day Martin joined the developer team to push the project. I tried to support the team by cooking. It was delicious without praising myself too much (editor’s note: it was del.icio.us!).

The first outcomes became apparent at the third day. We had really fun to click on our own app the first time. We will be the greatest fans of our own app. We really came along with the work although we played a lot of Parking Wars in Facebook.

At the end of the fourth day were got a little cabin fever: our head quarter is not that big and the progress of our work got stuck. We discussed the design of our app and didn’t reached a consensus on it. After a two hours discussion we found a solution.

At the end of the week we realized that we won’t finish the app - but that didn´t matter. It still was a  success, because we formed a team in one week. To celebrate this we wanted to make a barbecue. The weather let us down, so we decided to cook in the kitchen. By beers and steaks our work ended, where it started, in the innovation lab.

We want to thank our friends who accompanied us on our Facebook event page. Btw: the videos were watched over a hundred times!

A lot of work is done and a lot of work is still in front of us. So, goodbye and stay tuned.

Thank you, Venture Beat, for taking up the cudgels for the virtual goods industry:

Virtual goods have up until now been the domain of Asian video games (where they’re mainstay revenue streams for many gaming companies, like Shanda), niche kids and teen virtual worlds like Habbo and Gaia Online, and hardcore computer games like World of Warcraft.

…

Us serious older types might not think that apps that entertain are worth much, but we need to start recognizing that entertaining apps, especially games, are as legitimate as any other form of entertainment business. And as Sego says, virtual goods are part of the entertainment that apps provide. So maybe instead of renting a movie or buying songs on iTunes, you pay $5 and get the (fluff)friend Golden Fox, then feed it.

Read the full article: Virtual goods starting to pan out for Facebook game app developers, and not just the venture-funded ones » VentureBeat

This is a video of a very talented guy I discovered at Basic Thinking. I think Jasper should be the next Superstar in Germany. Perhaps we can support him.

(Sorry folks, the song is German)

Goodbye and stay tuned.

Basic Thinking, one of Germanys most read blogs, has published an article about virtual goods in the context of social networks. The article is by Tobias Lampe, CEO of WhatsYourPlace. His closing statement coincides with our vision:

Gerade aus diesem Grund passen virtuelle Güter auch sehr gut zu Social Networks – denn diese stellen die soziale Umgebung zur Verfügung, die virtuellen Gütern erst ihren Wert gibt. Für Social Network Betreiber ist dies natürlich auch aus wirtschaftlichen Gesichtspunkten interessant, ermöglichen virtuelle Güter doch zumindest ein zweites Standbein neben der reinen Werbefinanzierung. Und das ist für die langfristige Wirtschaftlickeit auch bitter nötig. Meine Prognose ist daher, dass gerade Social Networks in Zukunft vermehrt mit virtuellen Güter Konzepten experimentieren werden.

Read the full article: Basic Thinking Blog | Gastbeitrag: Virtuelle Güter – Geld für Nichts?

When interviewing social network users we discovered a phenomena: people collect snips of their favourite movies and clip them into their profile pages. We called this phenomena “snip clipping” and thus designate our Facebook app SnipClip. Snip clipping is all about collecting: bringing together what you like and showing the world that you like it. It’s not only about possessing things, but also about sharing common interests and exchanging things as a form of communication. In fact, snip clipping is above all a social activity and social networks like Facebook are the ideal environment for such activities.

Our app is not yet finished, but we are working hard on it. Thus, any feedback is highly welcome! At the left side you see our new logo. If you like or dislike it, drop us a message! We choose a squirrel as our logo, because squirrels are the embodiment of collecting. And here is a screenshot of our application:

If you like to take a preview on our application, leave us a comment. We’ll contact you!

Until then, have a good time!

This is the video of the last day our work week. I hope you enjoyed the videos.

The sound is from Big Buck Bunny
(c) copyright Blender Foundation | www.bigbuckbunny.org

Goodbye and stay tuned.

Our soulmate Spirofrog is participating in an online start-up competition of the Financial Times Deutschland. Spirofrog is an online marketplace for traineeships.

Vote for Spirofrog!

New release, new bugs - as it always is and will be:

Facebook released their new design tonight and it threw the platform into somewhat of a chaotic state for a period of time. The update went live at around 10:15 PM eastern and it appears that the errors continue to be taking place right now. Many users have been complaining that the site has been inaccessible. Some pages are clearly not displaying properly if at all.

Read the full article: Facebook Releases New Design, Bugs Abound