Facebook separates the ‘devs’ from the ‘dev-nots’

Facebook rolled out a significant set of changes to pages last week – but one of the really important developments was something of a footnote as majority of people failed to get past the shiny new features on offer.

Pages are the public profile of brands and other organisations on the social network. Changes last week saw a raft of improvements that brought them into line with the new style profiles that were introduced for individuals late last year.

The changes, and what to do if you administer a page, have been looked at in some detail elsewhere, but there was one announcement that particularly caught my eye.

Facebook is deprecating Facebook Mark-up Language (FBML), the HTML based coding language that millions have used to customise their pages by creating their own tabs, and shifting to iFrames. In fact, custom tabs no longer really exist – being replaced by custom apps.

This all sounds tremendously ‘techie’, but for the layman this is a sad indication of what Facebook is becoming. While nearly anyone with a little bit of help and a good deal of patience could use FBML to create their own custom tabs, this will certainly not be the case with iFrames.

Such is the complexity of using iFrames that only organisations with developers on hand will be able to make the most of the change. Creating similar custom apps by this new method is tantamount to creating simple Facebook applications. A process that will never get further than this screen for many.

Facebook is effectively discriminating between the ‘devs’ and ‘dev-nots.’ If you are a small brand that has built up a strong community around your page then a layer of customisation has now been denied to you.

Well, what does all this mean for the future of Facebook? It means a two-tier ecosystem for pages, with only those who have the resources and money able to explore every possibility that pages have to offer.

It also increases suspicions that Facebook is tightening its commercial hold. Favouring Facebook development and marketing companies such as Wildfire (which was formed with the help of Facebook seed funding) over the little guy.

There is one temporary ray of light. While FBML will eventually disappear altogether you can still install the Static FBML application to your page before March 11^th. If you don’t want to move into the Facebook application development business, I strongly recommend you do.

Image credit: lifealgorithms.wordpress.com