Chapter 1. Introducing Facebook Platform
Many profound questions have haunted scholars and thinkers since the dawn of humanity: Why are we here? Does God exist? What is art? Where does the other sock go? The question of whether or not to build an application on Facebook[1] Platform is not one of them.
That said, since you’re holding this book in your hands, you’ve likely already spent some time pondering this question. Perhaps you have recently been bitten by a zombie or been given some fish for an aquarium you didn’t know you owned. Maybe you were challenged to a round of movie trivia or told that you were someone’s Top Friend. If you’re a Facebook user (and it’s increasingly likely that you are), you’ve probably installed an application or been invited to install one by a member of your ever-growing social network.
Although it may seem impossible to live without those applications, Platform hasn’t always been part of Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg unleashed Facebook Platform on May 24, 2007, at an event held at the San Francisco Design Center attended by 800 developers. For all the epic speechwriting and grandiose claims (Mark opened his presentation with, “Today, together, we’re going to start a movement”), that day really did mark an important moment in the history of the industry. The enthusiastic and decidedly nervous founder of Facebook might just as well have been standing on that blue stage and waving a vial of gold over his head, yelling, “Gold! Gold! Gold from the American River!” ...