Facebook apps

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/technology/08class.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1&ref=technology

The above is to a link which discusses social networking applications and the enourmous potential that they have. The article focuses a class at Stanford University in 2007 where groups of students would make Facebook applications. The applications were often very simple and recieved a lot of traffic via Facebook. Once ads were included in the applications, large revenues were coming in. An important theme of the succesfull groups was the simplicity of the applications. In one instance, the code for a group's application was mistakingly deleted three days before launch. The group's forced rudimentary version turned out to be the most successfull group.
Another important note about the article is how recent technology has made it significantly easier for start ups. For example, open source software and cloud technologies allowed the groups to make these applications for very little startup costs. Without these technologies, the initial costs would be too great for a small group of college students.