layout: post title: Facebook shutting down useful developers created: 1189223686 categories:

• Facebook
• development
• Mark Shropshire
• Friendster
• Social Media
• Web 2.0
• Web Development

Since I've been rambling on about Facebook recently, Mark Shropshire pinged me to let me know that Facebook is blocking / taking legal action against apps that attempt to remotely "automate" Facebook. Said like that, it sounds kind of bad, but in reality, it's MoodBlast trying to update your status across all systems -- FB, Twitter, Jaiku, etc.

TechCrunch has a longer write up on this trend. What does this mean? Well, it's probably not a good idea to treat a large, commercial system as a coral reef (hat tip to Dave Winer).

Aside: coral reefs and other ecosystems flourish around the rusting hulks of sunken ships. Should we extend the analogy to businesses as well? Didn't all these other social networks spring up because of the dead carcass of Friendster?