Google Should Pull An Android On Facebook (GOOG)

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.

This post originally appeared at Startup Boy.

Nival Ravikant is an entrepreneur and angel investor, a co-author of Venture Hacks, and a co-maintainer of AngelList.

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

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See Also:

• Why Yo Momma Won’t Use Google+ (And Why That Thrills Me To No End)
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• WARNING: This Is What Your Arm Will Look If You Touch That New Plant That's Invading New York

Google Should Pull An Android On Facebook (GOOG)

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Gmail Mobile Web App for iOS Adds “Pull Down to Refresh” Feature

Gmail mobile Web app for iOS borrowed a feature from Tweetie (now the official Twitter client for iPhone and iPad) with which instead of clicking a button to refresh the list of messages, you can now simply pull down the list and wait to see the new messages.

Gmail Mobile Web App for iOS Adds “Pull Down to Refresh” Feature

Backlink: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DTWB/~3/iLxC9HCVPUo/

B&N;: Just Pull The Plug On The Nook Already

Today's juicy rumor is that the next version of Barnes & Noble's e-reader, the Nook, could be a full-fledged color tablet running Google's mobile OS Android. Before Barnes & Noble invests too much into this new product, perhaps they should listen to this piece of friendly advice: give up.

The first Nook is a really nice product. It had something Amazon's Kindle doesn't, a small full-color touchscreen to complement its black and white e-paper screen. It was pretty enough. And B&N promoted the hell out of it.

There's one problem with it though: its catalogue of books, while generous, is behind Kindle's, and customers are finding out. The Kindle is a nice piece of hardware, at least as good as the Nook, but more importantly it's a huge media store that Amazon is smartly spreading to every platform, from desktop computers to smartphones to rival tablets. This is the right strategy, and it's paying off. Most people who read books on iPad do it through the Kindle app. And Amazon is currently in a battle royale with Apple's iBookstore to be the dominant store for e-books -- and winning. B&N is imitating that strategy, but we don't know anyone who reads B&N e-books on their iPad, and Amazon is promoting the hell out of Kindle.

This means that between those two giants, Barnes & Noble stands no chance. It's a retailer. It doesn't have the software or hardware culture, or the experience of running media stores, that Apple and Amazon have. And it's not exactly a nimble startup either. It can't build a media store that can rival Amazon's or Apple's, and there's certainly no chance in hell that it can build a full-featured Android tablet that can compete head-on with the iPad.

Of course, Barnes & Noble is for sale, and they need prospective buyers to believe that there's some potential growth left in the business in sexy markets like tablets and e-books. But they shouldn't have any illusions.

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See Also:

• Whoa! Did The Nook Have Better Sales Than The Kindle In March?
• Now Amazon Really Has To Cut The Kindle's Price
• Amazon Signs Bestselling Author To Game-Changing Kindle eBook Deal

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