谷歌该对 Facebook 来一次 Android 式突袭Google should pull an Android on Facebook
Android 对抗 iOS 的最大武器，在于它是一个开放得多的平台。iOS 优雅的用户体验是有代价的——开发者不得不忍受审核延迟、被拒、私有 API、禁止广告的规则以及应用下架。而 Android 则对运营商、用户和开发者都保持开放。
Facebook 的开发者面临两大问题。首先，为了吸引他们，Facebook 炮制了人为的病毒式传播渠道，并让开发者得以使用。后来为了阻止垃圾信息，又不得不把这些渠道收回去。但在开发者看来，这种执法反复无常、随心所欲：有人（比如激励广告墙（offerwall）服务商）受到惩罚，有人（去看看某家游戏公司的 S-1 文件）则得到奖赏。其次，Facebook 自己还在摸索商业模式，所以什么允许、什么不允许随时可能改变——看看那些社交广告公司和支付公司的坟墓吧，再看看最近 Facebook Credits 的推出和强制使用。
Google 应该告诉开发者——"这是一套简单且永不变更的规则。这是一个简单、我们将始终保证向后兼容的 API。这是对开发出能为 Google+ 带来更多用户的应用的激励和奖励。这是用户导出自己的信息和社交图谱的简单清晰的方式。这是我们对所有交易抽取的标准小额分成——永远不会提高。"
眼下，对任何创业公司而言，真正开放的平台只有电子邮件和 Web。Android 紧随其后，位列第三。Facebook、iOS、短信等平台固然精美优雅，但它们若忘了这一点，就危险了——当年 AOL、CompuServe、WAP 等围墙花园也曾同样精美优雅。
一支十万人的开发者大军，是 Google 对抗 Facebook 的最佳机会。
Android’s best weapon against iOS is that it’s a much more open platform. iOS’ elegant user experience comes at a cost – developers have to suffer through approval delays, rejections, private APIs, rules against advertising, and shutdowns. Android, on the other hand is open to carriers, users, and developers.
Facebook developers face two major problems. Firstly, to attract them, Facebook concocted and gave the developers access to artificial virality channels. Then, to prevent spam, they had to take them back. But the enforcement seems capricious and arbitrary to developers, with some (i.e., the offerwall providers) being punished, and some (check a certain game company’s S-1) being rewarded. Secondly, Facebook is still figuring out its own business model, so what’s allowed and what’s not is subject to change – look at the graveyard of social ad companies and payments companies, and the recent introduction and mandates on Facebook credits.
Google should tell developers – “Here’s a simple set of rules that will never change. Here’s a simple API that we will always keep backward compatibility with. Here’s an incentive and a reward for creating an application that brings more users into G+. Here’s a simple and clear way for users to export their information and their social graph. Here’s the standard small cut that we take on everything – it will never go up.”
Right now, the only true open platforms for any startup are email and the web. Android is a close third. Facebook, iOS, SMS, etc., while beautiful and elegant, forget at their peril that there was a time when AOL, Compuserve, WAP, and other walled gardens were beautiful and elegant too.
An army of 100,000 developers is Google’s best chance against Facebook.