Scenes from Facebooks F8 Conference

by Clint Boulton

Programmers wait outside the Design Center Concourse for the start of F8, which hosted a fraction of the social network’s more than 400,000 developers.

SocialCash, which looks to help people make money from social networks, unleashes its simian mascot on the F8 crowd during the exhibition session. Featured on the gorilla’s T-shirt is Dave Morin, senior platform manager at Facebook.

CEO Zuckerberg welcomed the F8 crowd, regaling them with tales of his vision quest to Istanbul, where, presumably, he solved the secret of social advertising. Just kidding! Zuckerberg’s presentation was solid, even if no payment processing system was unveiled.

In May 2007, Facebook boasted 24 million users when it launched its acclaimed Facebook Platform for programmers. Developers leveraged the platform to build a number of fun but frivolous applications that brought users together.

As of July 23, Facebook boasts more than 90 million users and is poised to surpass MySpace in total users in a few months, thanks largely to Facebook Platform.

Facebook Connect is designed to let users take their Facebook profile information-

When Facebook Connect launches this fall, Digg will be one of the 25 or so partner sites to integrate with the service. This means users will be able to log into Digg using their Facebook login information. Six Apart and CitySearch will also enable this functionality.

Facebook will look to leverage Apple’s iPhone this fall with a version of its Connect service tailored for the popular smart phone. If Connect proves a hit with users, this app will be huge, enabling Facebookers to connect to supporting third-party sites from Facebook wherever they are.

Facebook has set up guidelines for app programmers on Facebook Platform. Here, Ben Ling, director of platform management for Facebook, said the social network is trying to weed out spammy applications that annoy people. The word behind Ling is “Transparent.”

Ling introduced Facebook Great Apps, which is designed to encourage development of non-spammy, useful apps. Ling said Facebook will throw its weight behind apps that enrich the platform while satisfying users.

Programmers and various other attendees mill around after the news event at F8, which later featured live bands, including the popular Thievery Corporation.