Videos, Dating, Amazon, Friends, Tabs and More on This Week’s Top 20 Emerging Facebook Apps by MAU

Turkish video applications, raunchy dating apps, a friend quiz in Chinese, birthday reminders, Amazon sweepstakes, invite friend tabs and custom tab apps were on our list of apps that emerged by monthly active users this week.

The apps on our list grew from between 84,800 and 324,400 MAU, based on AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook. We define “emerging” applications as those that ended with between 100,000 and 1 million MAU in the past week.


                                  Top Gainers This Week

Turkish video apps on our list this week included Genç Video, topping our list with 324,400 MAU while another, VideoPro, grew by 105,000 MAU. Another video app, Veoh Videos, grew by 125,300 MAU. These apps allow users to view, share, Like and comment upon videos on the app, and sometimes auto-post videos to a user’s Wall as well. Dating apps Fbp with 132,000 MAU and the raunchier ! Make Luv 2 me ! with 126,100 MAU were on the list, too.

In the middle of the list were apps that did a variety of things. 21個問題 with 121,800 MAU is an app that asks users questions of their friends then posts the answers to the Wall. Birthday Reminder grew by 108,100 MAU and promises to automatically post to friends’ walls for birthdays with a customizable message. Amazon Sweepstakes grew by 105,000 MAU.

An app that replaces the older function on Facebook Pages to invite your friends made an appearance on the list, too. The Turkish version, Sayfalar için Arkadaş Davet Butonu, grew by 113,300 MAU and the English version, Invite Your Friends Button for Pages, by 101,700 MAU. Then a pair of tab apps, Static Tab – Welcome Tab for Pages with 101,300 MAU and Hike FREE Tab Builder for Pages: New Static FBML with 84,800 MAU, made the list, too.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned next week for our look at the top weekly gainers by monthly active users on Monday, the top weekly gainers by daily active users on Wednesday, and the top emerging apps on Friday.

Facebook Locks the Top Navigation Bar in Place as Users Scroll

Many Facebook users are seeing the site’s top navigation bar locked to the top of the browser window no matter where they scroll. This floating navigation bar gives users access to their notifications, friend requests, messages, and links to the home page, profile, and account settings at all times. Previously, if users scrolled down the news feed, a profile, or other page on the site the top navigation bar would scroll with it and become hidden from view.

By giving users access to navigation functions even when they’re scrolled down a page, Facebook may be able to reduce the likelihood that they’ll leave the site when they finish viewing something. Instead, they’ll be tempted to visit another part of the site, especially if they have pending notifications, requests, or messages.

Users may recognize the floating navigation bar as it’s used on both Twitter and Google+. Some might say this is one more way Facebook has followed the lead of its competitors when its comes to design.

Users may also notice that while playing certain social games such as CityVille, their right sidebar that contains the games ticker and ads stays fixed when they scroll. This is not the case on all games and apps or at all window widths, though. We believe the fixed sidebar for games depends on how third-party developers utilize the fluid canvas option released last month, and is not related to Facebook’s cross-site implementation of the floating navigation bar.

The rollout of persistently visible navigation options, along with several recent product releases and site changes, could be groundwork for a more significant redesign to be launched at f8 next week. Rather than shock users by changing many things about the site at once, Facebook may be opting to push changes one at a time.

Facebook tested a design of the news feed a few months ago that removed the Most Recent feed and locked both the top navigation bar as well as the left navigation bar of bookmarks. If our theory holds true, Facebook might be trying to get users accustomed to the fixed navigation bar before it alters the news feed at f8.

It’s safe to assume that removing the second tab of the news feed would significantly alter user behavior and cause some backlash. Minimizing additional confusion by keeping other design elements stable, even if just for a week, could increase the chances of a successful reception.

We’re seeing the locked navigation bar across our accounts, so it may have been rolled out to a majority or all of the user base. If you’re not seeing it yet, or have feedback on the new design, let us know in the comments.

Windows 8: Microsoft's Swiss Army knife vision

Microsoft, in revealing details of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system this week at its Build developer conference here, has presented its vision for computing in a tablet era that's starkly different from the one offered by rival Apple.

Apple believes that consumers will want discreet devices that are designed to take on specific tasks. That's why its computers run a beefy operating system designed to handle heavy-duty computer processing required, for example, by computer-assisted design applications, and its iPads run a much lighter-weight operating system that's fine for surfing the Web or reading a digital book.

That's not the vision Microsoft's pursuing. The software giant believes consumers will want a meaty operating system that can run on a variety of devices--everything from a slim tablet up
to water-cooled high-end gaming system. Not surprisingly,
that operating system is Windows.

"Their approach is to take the PC OS and bring it to the tablet which is opposite of what Apple is doing," said Jason Maynard, an analyst with Wells Fargo Securities. "Sometimes when you have a hammer, everything looks like nail."

Maynard doesn't think that Microsoft's approach is without merit. The company is simply playing to its strengths. After all, Windows runs more than 1 billions PCs worldwide. And when Windows 8 arrives, most likely late next year, it will ship on as many as 400 million PCs, according to some analyst estimates. At the Build conference, Microsoft harped on the potential market to developers in hopes of convincing them to create new applications for Windows 8.

"The opportunity for building these applications is Windows. These applications will run on all new Windows 8 PCs, desktop, laptop, Windows tablets, small, big screens, all-in-ones--every Windows PC, whether it's a new PC or an upgrade from Windows 7," Windows President Steven Sinofsky told the 5,000 developers gathered for his keynote address at the conference on Tuesday. "That could be 400 million people when this product launches. That's a market opportunity for all of you."

The challenge, though, will be convincing developers to create slick applications that take advantage of the touch-enabled Metro interface of Windows 8. And it's likely that they'll only do that if they believe hardware makers will come up with compelling designs that encourage users to use the new operating system as a tablet and not just the PCs that Windows has traditionally run.

That's why Microsoft has been working with hardware makers to insure that Windows 8 can run on ARM chips. The ARM system-on-a-chip architecture means that devices themselves can be thinner and lighter. That should open the door to some slim and attractive tablets running the operating system. But those ARM chips won't be able to run some legacy Windows applications unless programmers go through the bother of porting those applications.

That means that ARM tablets running Windows 8 won't have complete backward-compatible functionality. And it removes some of the advantage that running Windows brings to a tablet.

Those legacy applications will be able to run on Windows 8 computers using the x86 architecture with chips from Intel and AMD. But that architecture requires more hardware components, meaning the devices themselves may wind up being thicker and heavier. That's fine for slipping into a dock to handle traditional workplace computing tasks such as crafting a presentation. But those bulkier devices aren't particularly comfortable to sit back and read a book on.

To be fair, it's still early. Microsoft and its partners have at least a year to work out the kinks before Windows 8 and the variety of devices on which it will ship debut. And they recognize the challenges.

Qualcomm is one of the key Microsoft partners, working to optimize its ARM-based Snapdragon chip for Windows 8. It's also working hard to help developers figure out how to port legacy applications to the new platform, though it realizes it can't tackle every one.

"Our focus is going to be on the top applications that address the top 90 percent or so of users," said Steve Horton, director of software in the chipset division at Qualcomm. "But if you're using Quicken 99, you may be stuck."

Similarly, AMD is pushing hard to help its partners create ever thinner devices that can handle the broadest swath of applications.

"There is definitely the opportunity for thinner, lighter devices" running x86 chips, said Gabe Gravning, senior manager for client product marketing at AMD. "The market is moving in that direction."

That's Microsoft's big bet with Windows 8. Microsoft sees Windows as the Swiss Army knife that can meet everyone's computing needs. It's got to hope that the prevailing market wisdom of Apple, providing specific devices running different operating systems tailored for discrete purposes, will prove flawed.

Facebook Takes Lesson from Google+, Revamps Friends Lists

Facebook began rolling out smart friend lists to users, in what is seen as a response to Google+ circles. The new tool makes it easier for you to group Facebook friends into categories such as close friends, acquaintances, or work colleagues, and it should be live for most users by the end of the week, Facebook said in a blog post.

Some of the new smart lists on Facebook will be automatically created, including work, school, family, and city (based on your location). You will be able to add or remove friends from these lists manually, as well as create your own lists, such as close friends and acquaintances. As with Google+, each list will have its own news feed, too.

With the close friends list you will see everything a person posts in the News Feed, while the acquaintances list will show only important postings, like relationship statuses or location changes. People you add to the restricted list will see only your public posts (another new feature introduced recently).

Google+ is the hottest contender for Facebook’s social networking crown. It has garnered more than 25 million users since it was launched as a limited beta in June. Among other features that it has received praise for, Google+ uses circles to easily organize your friends, so you could still have people following you (Twitter-style) and share things with friends or selected groups (Facebook-style).

However, Facebook’s smart friend lists are not a direct rip-off Google+. Facebook’s Blake Ross, a product director, explained in a blog post that the smart friend lists are just improvements of the lists feature, which has existed for several years, but was hard to find (deep in the old, confusing privacy    settings) and clumsy and time-consuming to organize.

By automating most of the smart lists, Facebook has one-upped Google+, as you don’t have to add someone to a circle/list every time you have a new friend/follower. Facebook’s lists will also feature suggestions, which should make it easier to add the right friends without too much effort.

Steve Ballmer Tells Windows 8 Conference That Microsoft Is "Reimagining" Itself

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made a surprise appearance at the end of Wednesday’s BUILD keynote speech, telling the audience that Microsoft is in the process of reimagining itself.

Addressing Microsoft’s future, Ballmer said: “In a sense you could say that if Windows 8 is Windows reimagined, we're also in the process--and Windows 8's an important step of that--of reimagining Microsoft.”

He ticked off four big themes he said the software giant is focusing on: New hardware form factors, cloud services, new application scenarios, and new forms of developer opportunity.

“While it's clear we have a long way to go still with Windows 8, we've been gratified certainly by the reactions and the interest,” Ballmer said.

“I sure hope the show has been interesting. I know it's been fun," Ballmer told the gathered developers. "I went and checked how quickly you activated the machines that you got yesterday, and I guess I could tell you what you were all doing last night.” Each conference attendee received a Samsung Windows Developer Preview PC tablet with the preview version of Windows 8 loaded on it.

Ballmer told the crowd that there have already been 500,000 downloads of the developers’ preview version of Windows 8, which is available to anyone who is interested.

View Shares” Link Shows Who Has Reposted Any Facebook News Feed Story

Facebook users are seeing a new “View Shares” link beneath news feed stories by friends, Pages, and those they subscribe to. When clicked, it opens a popover window displaying who has reposted that story and any additional context they added. Users will only see shares visible to them, meaning any post published publicly or by one of their friends.

View Shares constitutes the third news feed story feedback metric visible to users, joining Likes and comments. It indicates what news feed stories are most popular and that users might therefore want to read, click through, or repost themselves. The link’s presence could help alert users to the availability of the Share option and increase its usage. It will help Page admins who previously had no way of telling how frequently their updates were reposted. View Shares might also push content publishers to more directly encourage their readers to share their posts.

The feature now appears on posts by both users and Pages. In the popover revealed by the View Shares link, reposts where users added an optional description display that text, while those without additional context read “Name shared a page: [Page name]“. The feature respects privacy, as only users who could already view a repost will see it in the View Shares pop over.

Users have long had the “Share” option to repost the news feed stories they see, but data about the quantity of reposts was never displayed on the original story. Likes and comments both benefit from having the volumes of these feedback types displayed on posts. Now the Share link has the same expanded presence, which may serve to remind users about the option.

Somewhat oddly, the volume of Shares of a Page’s posts is not included in a Page’s Insights. Admins can now find this data by viewing their Page’s own posts, and the data will also probably be added to Insights in the near future.

While reposts previously helped publishers gain a burst of additional impressions, they didn’t provide a social recommendation for the original story to its viewers the way Likes and comments do. Those feedback types can help improve a post or publisher’s EdgeRank, or prominence in the news feed, but they usually don’t expose the post to a user’s own network.

The View Shares feature means Shares will give posts both immediate exposure to a user’s friends and a permanent recommendation. Since there are more benefits to Shares for publishers, they may want to increase the frequency with which they ask users to Share their posts.

Page admins might not be entirely happy about the change, though, as now when a user Shares one of their posts, it doesn’t include a “via [Page name] link back to the Page that originally posted the story. This means Shares no longer offer Pages an opportunity to gain new fans.