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?

Yesterday the twitter community and a few other main stream blogs were a buzz about a brand new twitter iPhone application called Tweetsville. Tweetsville is apart of the Tapulous family of iPhone applications and packs some awesome features such as built in search.twitter.com trends, search and the ability to show 200 tweets on your timeline. But is this new twitter application the best to date? We compared it to another popular twitter application Twittelator, take a look at the video and let us know in the comments which one you think is better or vote in the poll below, What is the best iPhone twitter application?

iPhone app review: Tweetsville vs. Twittelator. Is Tweetsville now the best twitter iPhone app? from Wayne Sutton on Vimeo.

What is the best iPhone twitter application?

You can download tweestville here (iTunes link) or Twittelator here (iTunes link)

What is the best iPhone twitter application?
( surveys)

The Edge (Gossip)

Stylistic (Fashion)

Fuchsia (Beauty)

Poor Kid (Parenting)

News.Gossip.Info (News and Information)

Clutch plans on launching 2 additional blogs to its’ roster that focus on electronics/tech and travel/leisure. Other plans for also include rolling out a counterpart to Clutch especially for men, name still to be determined. As if the additional blogs weren’t enough to keep us entertained we came across some other nice little features like SMS text updates when new content is available and a partnership with Shop Style that allows readers to share looks with other Clutch readers. Goodie! Also their is a nice integration of Shop Style into Stylistic, Clutch’s blog for fashion.

While this may seem like a perfect alternative to purchasing a wireless card, I am almost positive tethering for the iPhone will not be free. This service could be beneficial while you are waiting in the airport or having coffee at Starbucks. However, if the service is an additional $50+ a month, I would only be using the internet on the phone and finding an Ethernet or an alternative wireless connection for my laptop! As 2009 quickly approaches, I’m sure Apple will make a strategic move with the price and functionality of tethering for the iPhone as well as new applications that will make this the must-have phone in comparison to the Blackberry Storm and the G1.

Hosted by critically-acclaimed actress Nia Long and comedian Chris Spencer, the “virtual” broadcast will feature red-hot performances from Washington, DC, New York and Atlanta hotspots — all from a stunning, ground-breaking virtual environment.

Currently, there is a a site up for the awards that has a page for the My Time Online contest, where users/potential viewers can upload themselves singing 1 of 5 songs that are currently up for an award.  Those videos will be judged and a winner will be chosen.   The show isn’t scheduled to air until November 25th, so between now and then there are going to be a ton of specials leading up to the ceremony.  On November 25th the show will air on BET J, at 8:00 PM with an encore online broadcast at 10:00 pm.  The winner of the My Time Online contest will also get an award and have their speech aired.

Little Peeves about the actual website for the awards site:

• Lots of broken links so I’d suggest using your back button when your browse
• When you go and view the photo gallery, it reloads the page every time.  I know this is good for getting page views up and trafficking ads, but it is no fun for slow connections.
• The design seems a bit off-balance to me.  There are quite a few pages with a ton of white space and buttons that are larger than they need to be.
• I can’t click on the logo to get back home.

The major thing about the site though, is that they are saying “The BET J VIRTUAL AWARDS perfectly blends the ‘traditional’ awards show with today’s cutting edge technology,” but other than the online rebroadcast, the user submitted videos and the use of a virtual environment I’m not seeing it.  Since this is for music, there are so many opportunities to go and pull videos and put them on the site.  They have the shows leading up to it that they could rebroadcast online as well, or they could go in to their archive and pull out clips about some of the artist and just have a multimedia section.  If they are as concerned about page views as the photo section would have me believe, I would think they would also want to increase average time on site by offering things that will keep people on one page for a few minutes.  There is also a lack of mobile integration.  Some of the most cutting edge and practical ways to get audience more engaged with traditional media is through mobile technologies, especially since the audience does get to vote on the “Best Underground Artist” category.

Overall, this sounds like an interesting endeavor and I am looking forward to checking it out.  I can’t help but wonder if this is a test to see if an awards ceremony like this will be rolled out for the larger awards shows

Airtime is November 25th at 8:00 pm on BET J.

Yes.

We.

Can.

He has brought a new day to light.

BlackVoices’ Obama Watch 08, has a few interesting articles, and some discussion board comments from readers, but what is most striking about their coverage is the interactive Flash based map that shows each candidates electoral vote count by State.

theRoot.com has created a segment called My Voter Story, which allows their readers to write a brief essay, (400 words or less), discussing their voter experience as well as what this election means to them. TheRoot will be publishing these stories today and throughout the remainder of this week. If your interesting in participating, submit your story to submissions@theroot.com with the subject line: “My Voter Story.”

RushmoreDrive has partnered with NSNews and is offering a live streaming a “Watch the Vote” event streaming live from the campus of Johnson C. Smith University.  The application is powered by Kyte:

Rushmore Drive’s Kyte application also allows users to view and share player as Facebook app.

RushmoreDrive will also have a “Voice Your Vote” section where the students of JCSU will have the opportunity to sound of on a number of different election topics.

BET has put together a litany of strong interactive components and election day content. They have added a new strip of election related coverage on their homepage, as well as a brand new segment called Be Heard. Be heard has a very interesting interactive widget which includes up-to-date election information, and tips to help ensure that your vote counts. BET also has a live video stream of election day coverage starting at 8:00EST, as well as a user generated component allowing users to upload video of their voting experience.

NewsOne is covering the election through their election day blog, and has included include the CBS News’ live election results widget.

Essence has given readers the chance to be featured on Essence.com in a new segment called “I Voted”. The “I Voted” segment is asking readers to share their election day stories, thoughts, and photos. Selected stories will be featured on Essence.com homepage in the “I Voted” section.

BlackBottom.com, the Black news and entertainment video website, will be streaming live video from Barack Obama’s Election Rally in Chicago starting at 3:00pm EST.

General Tech Sites Coverage

Current TV is hosting an online party incorporating Digg, Twitter, and 12seconds. Bringing together some of the best in social media, the CurrentTV party will have a  Live DJ set by Diplo, and real-time broadcast of the most important results, facts and information .
Social Median has collaborated with  the Washington Post and The Guardian, allowing users to import their election day content from Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Blog, and other feeds into socialmedian. Your election updates from those sites will automatically appear on socialmedian.com, on washingtonpost.com, and other participating sites.

Google News has included a Google Map component with a view of the presidential race broken down by the number of electoral votes. Google News has also included graphs and date showing the Senate and House of Represitivite races, as well as Congressional races from each state. Google News has also released a very nice mobile page for those of you looking for full coverage on the go.

Another good source of coverage is Google Hot Trends. Which updates ranks, every 30 seconds, the most searched terms in Google. Google Hot Trends can be delivered via an RSS feed, and it will be interesting to see what people are searching as the election progresses. Side note: Tom Joyner was ranked #20 during the writing of this post. I guess its because of his coverage of the Election live from Barack Obama’s headquarters in Chicago.

As for us, you will see this post today, all day while we Rock the Vote ;)  However, no need to open another tab or window to stay current with the election results - take a quick look to your right and you will see the CNN Results widget that will keep you in the know.