Facebook Verified Apps Badge

According to TechCrunch, Facebook has launched their Verified Apps program that was announced back at the f8 Developers Conference in July (see TechCrunch liveblogging coverage). Sandra Liu Huang of Facebook says that the badges will start appearing to users early next year (screenshot at right).

This will split apps into three categories:

1. Great Apps: currently limited to Causes and iLike, the two third party apps that Facebook is showing off as being best of class. Your app will automatically be eligible for the Great Apps program if you submit it for Verification.
2. Verified Apps: authenticity and trustworthiness come to Facebook Platform. Make sure you meet the eligibility criteria, submit your app for verification, and earn a shiny badge as seen at right.
3. The Great Unwashed Masses: everybody else. Will this become the App Ghetto full of throwaways that no one installs or will users ignore the badges and take a flier?

There are two things that make this an important announcement. The first is highlighted in #3 above — will this become more tha a badge of honour and move into being a serious installation criteria? If so, that feeds right into number two: it costs $375 to have your application verified and you have to renew every 12 months. That’s per application, so developers who have four or five apps are looking at $1500 or $1875 to get their badge once per year. Let’s say that Facebook Platform sees 10,000 new apps next year, half of which get verified: that’s a healty almost $1.9m on Facebook’s bottom line.

The question in my mind is about whether this is a sign of maturity for Platform or a cash grab on Facebook’s behalf. You get some nice benefits out of being verified that go beyond the badge (see below), but do they justify the cost? Looks like it if you were planning to advertise using Social Ads, attend f8, and have your app spread through the requests/notifications/emails and news feed channels (and who isn’t, really?).

• Badging
  • A verified badge graphic displayed on your application’s About Page indicating that it has been verified by Facebook.
  • A special icon displayed next to your application in listings within the Application Directory.
• Distribution
  • Increased allocations for requests, notifications, and emails.
  • Increased visibility for News Feed stories.
• Advertising
  • $100 of Facebook advertising credit.
• Events
  • Discounted registration fees to events like f8, Facebook’s Developer Conference.

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