Delaying user login for accessing Facebook applications: Benefits, How-To and Case Studies

Nitesh Nandy @FB Developer Garage, New Delhinitesh@mobicules.com

require_login() - Why

• With require_login(), the application takes the user's permission to access her personal data stored with Facebook.

• An application page can be made available to a user without her having given permission to it to access her data, if require_login() is not called on the page.

• Such pages are accessible even without the user having logged into Facebook!

Example

Why delay require_login()

• Application Preview • Search Engine Optimization• Being in Facebook's good books (Feed

Ranks)• Better User Experience

Application Preview

• Seamless transition into the application• Let the users taste your application before

adding it • Easier for bloggers to write about apps

and link to them on their blogs

Feed Rankings

• The probability of a feed story showing up on a friends homepage who has not added the application depends on the 'quality' of feeds.

• Facebook analyzes the user's click-stream after clicking on a link from the story to estimate the 'quality'.– Whether the link forces an application Allow

Access– Time spent on the landing page from the feed– Users marking the feed as irrelevent

Feed Ranking

• Delaying require_login() helps show the user a landing page which has relevant content.

Better Feed Rankings --> Better Viral Growth

BAD

good

Search Engine Optimization

• Important user acquisition strategy apart from viral channels

Search Engine Optimization

• Crawlers do not login to facebook and install apps

• Serve pages without requiring logins• Apps are served from apps.facebook.com

so apps get to ride on back on facebook’s page rank

• Serve XML Sitemaps off apps.facebook.com and notify search engines about changes on your application

Better User Experience

• Asking to add before allowing to access any content results in bad user experience

• User cannot be expected to grant privileges when they haven’t seen anything on application

• Let the user access the content and then ask for addition

“Good content easily accessible"

• Links in feed stories should show the full content before prompting to add

• Content shown before adding should be reasonably authentic

• A good amount of application data should be open for crawler indexing

Thanks

Nitesh Nandy

nitesh@mobicles.com