Facebook recently announced their Facebook Connect initiative. The killer App?

Imagine if all the flames on blog posts didn’t exist- you’re imagining a blogging comment system that uses real identities to make users accountable for their comments. That’s what Connect could do- make the web accountable, again.

Another update on Facebook’s profile redesign.

What’s the delay?

Unlike other upgrades- translations, ads, and other recent additions to FB- the site realizes that the profile is the most important aspect of the site. For all its talk of listening to users, in this case, it actually matters more than ever.

Justin Smith at InsideFacebook outlines reasons why apps monetize better than social networks as a whole.

The bottom line is that your brand can see a better ROI through an app than through an ad- something to think about when you draw up your marketing budget.

Why is Facebook pruning apps, courting older users, and increasing privacy options?

Better users. Or at least better paying ones.

Michael Arrington’s post both highlighting and lamenting Facebook Chat   demonstrates a secondary function of Chat- it helps reinforce the social graph.

In his post, Arrington complains that his 5000 “friends” make Facebook Chat unmanageable. While it may not be the point of the service, we’ll guess Facebook isn’t disappointed. Facebook has always been about real connections, not anonymous networking. As services become more interactive through different products- applications, chat, etc- it becomes more important for users to have their online list reflect their real list, to avoid clutter and confusion.

It’s bad for Mike Arrington. But Chat might be very good for the future of Facebook.

This week, Tablet Hotels is releasing the Global Nomad Challenge.

They’re a client- but there are more interesting reasons to talk about them than that.

First, it’s an exciting application. Users can win stays in  amazing luxury hotels, or great coffee table books about some of the best places in the world. We’re excited about that as users, not as developers (and wish we could enter the contest). It’s amazing to see real, cool prizes emerge on platform.
It’s also exciting that, on this project, Tablet had the ideas. We were grunts and advisers- Tablet came up with a great concept and didn’t need our consulting. It shows they know their users well.

More importantly, it shows the exciting possibilities of Facebook. When people use the medium they promote on, they’re able to come up with fun, exciting ideas more easily than they could have ever before. Anyone can use a Facebook app, anyone can come up with an amazing idea, and with a good hired hand, anyone can make one.

On numerous tech blogs, pundits have worried that Facebook would lose its market leading position to web-wide services like FriendFeed.

Now, Facebook is opening up the mini-feed to third party sites.  The result? Don’t look for FriendFeed to take away Facebook’s marketshare yet.

Facebook’s announcement of an application permissions API probably doesn’t mean a lot. At this stage, few applications are robust enough to need interoperability.

RockYou and Slide’s “Walls”, however, are notable exceptions. RockYou released a wall API early on in platform. With a universal permissions API, it’s easier to make sure big players don’t get big advantages. By increasing accessibility, Facebook is making sure that other companies don’t limit their own.

What does Facebook’s new chat client mean for apps?

Superficially, of course,  it means that third party clients will be pushed out of the way.

The long term effects are different. Undoubtedly, Facebook is trying to increase the already massive engagement and time spent on the site. Chat will do that.

Apps benefit from time spent on Facebook. How much is unclear- but hinted integration with chat may help them in the future.

Nick O’Neill posts about Facebook’s elimination of the network tab. What does it mean?

Practically, it means more available real estate. It’s tough to discern the big picture, since networks still exist. But the absence of a “browse” feature gives users a bigger clue- networks aren’t going to be for networking, any more.

Instead, other features will make networking an opt in process. Facebook’s Friend of a Friend feature is one step in the right direction. It’s easy to posit that applications are another step- when users add an app, they’re entering into a new type of more effective network. The transition may not be complete, but the aesthetic changes indicate that one is coming.