One of the concerns surrounding the Facebook Platform and platforms of other social networks is the proliferation of perfectly useless applications with only a minimal social slant.  To thwart this problem, Facebook produced Guiding Principles for Social Applications in order to describe what constitutes a quality application.  In the Guiding Principles, Facebook emphasizes creating meaningful, trustworthy, and well-designed applications.

In the past, though, Facebook dealt with application trust issues when applications took on behavior users didn’t expect.  Applications forcing new users to invite other users before the applications could be used became one of the most notorious examples of untrustworthy applications.  Needless to say, Facebook users took up their usual mass methods of protest.  At last count, the group “Stop forcing me to ‘Invite 20 Friends’!!” had over 601,000 members.  The introduction of the Application Verification Program, however, is a great step in the direction of Facebook making concrete their beliefs about their Guiding Principles and actively working to ensure that social applications don’t abuse the masses.

Facebook’s Application Verification Program is a boon to developers, though, as it represents a mark of approval from Facebook itself.  Developers who embrace the AVP can partake of the following benefits: a badge that denotes an application as a Facebook-approved application (which can also be used outside of Facebook), increased distribution in the form of greater allocations for notifications and news feed stories, a $100 Facebook advertising credit, and discounts on registration fees to Facebook’s Developer Conference.

Although the Application Verification Program is optional, Facebook is following in the footsteps of another giant in the platform realm–Apple and the iPhone.  Apple requires developers to have some skin in the game in the form of a fee ($99 for individuals and $299 for companies) in order to gain access to the ability to offer an application for sale on iTunes.  Facebook requires a $375 fee for verification ($175 for students and non-profits).  This fee allows an application to be marked as a “Facebook Verified App” for one year.  At the end of that year, if the developer wishes to continue with the program, they’ll need to pay the fee again and re-apply.

Right now, developers can express intent to participate in the verification program.  Later, they’ll be contacted to submit more in-depth documentation (screenshots, use cases for data pulled from Facebook, etc.) regarding their Facebook application.  The verification process will determine whether the application adheres to the Facebook Platform Policies as expected of any application;  if the application properly uses integration points such as email, user-to-user notifications, and news feed stories; and if the application adheres to their principles on trustworthy applications.

User reaction remains to be seen, as the benefits of being Facebook-verified won’t be granted until early 2009, but for any potentially useful applications, i.e., applications where money is exchanged, a stamp of approval from Facebook could potentially mean the difference between 5 and 50,000 daily users.  Verification, anyone?

Based on feedback from their users, Regator recently did a complete redesign of the site. The new design gives the site a slightly cleaner and slightly less green look. Most obvious improvements include: thumbnails for posts including images, search was moved front and center, and the UI was tweaked to make browsing and finding embedded audio and video easier.

Regator has also done some work on the back-end. They are based on AJAX, so they have done some major SEO work to ensure Google can find the content. This has already boosted their PageRank to a 5. Regator’s search was already fast, but they have fine-tuned it even further. They are also constantly adding new blogs to their 500+ categories, as many as 50 per day.

If you haven’t already checked it out, Regator is definitely worth a look. The “What’s Hot” feature will help you find out what the blogosphere is buzzing about. You can add your favorite blogs, rate them, and leave comments. If you are tired of trying to keep up with your RSS feeds, Regator may be a good alternative. Not only can you keep up with the blogs that matter to you, but you easily discover new and valuable content.

Along with new, original programming and video from EbonyJet.com, one of the Channel’s features will be classic clips from the popular TV program, EbonyJet Showcase, which featured revealing interviews with some of the world’s most famous entertainers before they became superstars.

I feel like a kid in a candy store.

EbonyJet did a good job integrating their brand in to the YouTube channel.  Their brand colors smack you in the face, and the main navigation all leads back to EbonyJet.com.  But there is one major issue once you get past that point.

My main gripe with this channel is that the YouTube videos are not integrated with the EbonyJet site well.  You have to scroll down below the fold to find the link to the YouTube channel.  Plus the image and font they use to notify the reader of this great offering gets lost in everything else on the site (one of the drawbacks of a magazine layout).   Then, if you go in to the video section of the site the videos are not the videos featured on the YouTube channel (there are only 9 videos on EbonyJet.com) and they are using the all to familiar brightcove player.  Since they did their softlaunch back in September (or rather, that is when they joined YouTube), one would think they would have integrated the YouTube videos in to their site by now in terms of at least having one featured video at the top of the fold on their homepage.

Despite the lack of integration this is  still very exciting.  It is nice to see this kind of partnership between a black company and an internet juggernaut.  It is also a step towards really having a black multimedia online conglomerate.  I’ve always dreamed of one of those and figured the internet was the tool to make it possible.  Now, I don’t know if EbonyJet will be the one to completely run with it, but they are certainly laying the ground work for how to do it with this channel.

Still, thinking of the future, there is one issue/item that this does somewhat overcome but not completely by using YouTube: Going Mobile.  YouTube is integrated with just about all mobile devices, including of course, the iPhone.  As people are accessing via mobile devices, and internet providers are starting to cap the amount of data people can transfer per month, media size and distribution are going to start becoming more and more of an issue.  Videos tend to be big and difficult to view on mobile devices.  Just something to keep in mind, especially since every week a new black video site or video offering seems to be popping up.

Have you had a chance to go through the EbonyJet YouTube channel yet?  Found any gems?

“Man and Wife” has gained a huge following online and now we are bringing them to television to discuss sex, love and relationships,” said Tony DiSanto, EVP, MTV Programming and Series Development. “Hosts Fatman Scoop and his wife, Shanda are two charismatic and compelling personalities and you can’t help but listen and watch everything they say and do as they serve up advice to viewers in their own style.”

Man and Wife also stays true to their web roots with a full-featured accompanying website. The site has a built-in social community giving users access to a community of viewers, webisodes, and a discussion board. The discussion board allows viewers to post comments about the show and ask Scoop and Shanda, an HIV/AIDS counselor, questions about protection options and STD prevention.

Man and Wife airs weeknights at 11 p.m. ET on MTV.

Check out the promo.

Armed with a robust library of digital programming, Code Black Interactive through strategic distribution partnerships with YouTube, iTunes, XBOX360, Netflix, CinemaNow, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, Boost Mobile and others, will instantly become a major player in online video distribution.
Founder and CEO of Code Black Enterprises, Jeff Clanagan, has appointed long-time partner and industry veteran Quincy C. Newell as President of Codeblack Interactive.

Our mission with Codeblack Interactive is to super-serve the vastly undeserved black film audience with a full scope of digital delivery to every available viewing device, from flat-screens to laptops to mobile phones,” explains Mr. Newell. “We will allow hundreds of millions of black consumers, both at home and abroad, to access quality African-American themed content in any way they choose, anywhere they choose and at whatever time they choose.

It’s not yet certain what Code Black’s business model is or if they will encounter some of the same problems Hulu has with theirs,  but one thing is for sure the market is wide open for this kind of play.

The problem with OpenX is that it requires you to download and install the software on your own server. It also requires some basic knowledge of server directories, MYSQL and a server fast enough to serve ads at the rate of your impressions (the higher the traffic the faster the server). With that being said, are you ready to trust your revenue source to OpenX?

For those who aren’t, Google has answered your prayers with the release of Google Ad Manager. Targeted towards, small to medium publishers, Google Ad Manager takes advantage of the same features as OpenX with the stability and reliability of Google. Google Ad Manger requires no setup, no extra server costs, no knowledge of MYSQL, and most importantly it’s free.

Google Ad Manager is out of beta, and if you’re a Google AdSense publisher, you can sign in here . If you’re not an AdSense publisher you must first sign up.

You can see a full list of Ad Manager features here or access their Help Center here.

Visibly absent from Nappy Boy Digital is the feature that makes Myspace such a hit with musicians, the ability to listen to the artists singles from their profile page. I’m not sure if the capabilities aren’t there or if NBD didn’t enable this feature but, to me it would make sense to listen to the artists’ songs while browsing their profile page. Another flaw NDB has is the lack of integration from other social networks. I’m fairly sure that Nappy Boy Digital doesn’t intend to compete with the major social networks, but the utilization of other well established social networks could really help build a nice community for NBD. But that’s just my two cents.