Interview with Founder of FaceReviews.com

I am fascinated by Facebook. But I don’t have the time to explore it the way I’d really like to, especially with the new Facebook widg applications that are coming out all over the place.

So I did the next best thing, and got the creator of FaceReviews to help me out. Here’s our interview.

Interview with Rodney Rumford: Founder of FaceReviews, a Web site that rates and reviews Facebook applications.

So, Rodney. What’s Facereviews all about?

Tinu, it’s basically a rating and reviews site that looks at new Facebook applications ad digs into the details of the applications. We’re providing text, and video reviews of new applications that are useful for Facebook users. This helps people make informed application choices and saves them time. We are all about providing useful information so that Facebook users can know which programs are good and which are not so good.

Why did you create FaceReviews - how does it help Facebook Citizens or even newbies?

Immediately after Facebook opened up its f8 platform to 30,000 plus of developers, we saw a huge surge in applications that were available and people were drowning in options for different Facebook applications and Facebook widgets.

Facebook merely lists applications in their directory and there is really no way of knowing which of these applications are any good without going through the painful and time consuming task of trying it out. There are “most popular” lists but that dos not actually make the application good. There are lots of programs that are popular and really substandard.

So we are trying to raise the bar. So we knew there had to be a better way to make it easy for people to decide. And that is what facereviews is all about.

Oh, OK. So not just a time saver from the sorting standpoint, but it also has a rating system.

Yes.

I’m noticing a lot of popular Web properties, even Digg, making an app for Facebook. I have a feel for why, but I don’t quite get it… tell me specifically, why is this Facebook f8 platform so important?

Think about it, 30,000 developers writing code like crazy, Facebook has a network of over 25 million users, and they provide an ecosystem and revenue model for businesses to be built and expanded upon within Facebook. This is win/win/win across the board for everyone involved.

Many companies were built upon the Microsoft operating system and the same will hold true for the Facebook platform. Businesses now have access to the “Social Graph” and can have their content spread based upon users actual use of the product. This is a pivotal change that we are all witnessing and a very exciting time for all us technology geeks to be alive.

How do you decide which applications to review?

Well, we take a combination of developers that submit their application for review by us and we spend hours upon hours looking at applications and widgets that we think people would want to use on Facebook. We have looked at hundreds of applications and quite candidly it take a huge amount of time to decided what is crap and what is not. We typically review applications that we feel confident in the applications, usefulness, functionality and stability.

There are lots of “fun” applications and we will review them as well, because sometimes people just want to have fun. Nothing wrong with that, we all need a diversion every now and then.

How is the site being received?

Actually, it’s quite a pleasant surprise to see the response. We are grateful to all of our readers and people that are spreading the word in the blogosphere and on Facebook. The comments have been very positive and people really like the detailed reviews as well as the video reviews that we are publishing.

We have also received some encouragement from Facebook, which is very nice. We are humbled to have them take notice of what we are doing.

Really? Do tell… just how involved in the Facebook community are you folks? Can you get me some free Facegear?

(Laugh at me.)

We are very involved, In fact we started a group called Facebook Applications within the Facebook community and that is moving along nicely. The group was originally called Facebook widgets and we changed the name to “Facebook Applications” with some guidance from really smart people at Facebook.

All we can say is we just love these guys and the f8 platform is going to really change how many people use the Internet and how data flows; and we are happy to be involved. The developers group is also amazing, there are over 30,000 developers in the group and they are always sharing ideas.

Thanks for talking to me, Rodney. If you’re not too busy, maybe we can do a follow-up later?

Sure, anytime. But you have to post a comment on FaceReviews first. You’re a classic lurker.

Haha, you caught me. Okay.

If you have more questions for me to ask Rodney, please leave them as comments. Otherwise, you’re best off going over to FaceReviews to see for yourself.

[tags]facebook, social media, facebook apps, facebook widgets, facebook applications[/tags]