Facebook has taken a lot of criticism from developers this year, including a new round (discussed here).
Still, Facebook has done quite a bit on the platform front in 2011. That much is evident seeing it all listed neatly in the company’s freshly released 2011 in review.
Open Graph and the timeline are the obvious things that stick out from memory, as these were the focal points of the company’s developer conference, f8. But here’s a list of the new products launched this year:
- Comments Plugin and API
- Send Button and Dialog
- Subscribe Button
- New Insights (Distribution, Spam, Credits, and Page)
- Fluid Canvas
- Scores and Achievements API
- Open Graph and Timeline
- Social App Discovery on Mobile
New tools launched for developers included:
- Batch requests in Graph API
- New Developer App (with simplified UI, test users UI, groups for managing roles, integrated App Insights)
- Graph API Explorer
- New Bugs Tool
- Partnership with Stack Overflow for Technical Q&A
- Partnership with Heroku for easy hosting of Facebook Apps
- HTML5 Portal
- Rewrote Graph API, FQL, and SDK (JavaScript SDK, PHP SDK, iOS SDK, and Android SDK) documentation.
Facebook also touts its “transition to a modern, secure platform,” saying, “We know these sorts of changes were very painful and impacted many of you, but this was the right move for the ecosystem. We reduced the surface of Platform a great deal, which will enable us to provide better support in the future.”
Facebook refers to the removal of the app directory and app profile pages, the completion of legacy Auth to OAuth 2.0 & HTTPS transition, the removal of FBML and the launch of the Graph API parity with and deprecation of REST API.
Other changes: beta tier, 90 day breaking change policy, roadmap, change log, bug fix log (provided in weekly updates), and a redesigned Platform Live Status & API.
The company says it will be focused on growth for apps in the new year.