Adobe and Facebook Join Hands to Build Apps

So is this the start of collaborative social networking? Adobe has joined hands with one of the most popular social networking sites, Facebook in order to build an application that will use Adobe’s Flash platform and the new ActionScript 3 Client Library for Facebook the two companies developed together. So what it basically means you will see Facebook’s API built on Adobe Flash with lot for you to develop and use. Though writing Facebook applications in Flash is not new. In fact, 12 of top 20 apps on Facebook use Flash. However, the new tools should make it easier for developers in the future. Considering Adobe’s effectiveness and Facebook’s popularity we can surely see something positive coming outta this.

Together, both platforms allow you to:

• Share: Create rich interactions for users to share with friends.
• Have fun: Make games social; let users compete against their friends.
• Connect: Let users connect to your RIAs with Facebook Connect.
• Solve problems: Build RIAs that harness the power of community.
• Reach people: Reach millions of Facebook users through social distribution.

Get Started

To get yourself started with Facebook on Flash, you can read this guide.

The Type of Applications You Can Build

Application on Facebook: The application on facebook will be availble on Facebook but you will have to host it in your server. So when someone requests for it, they will redirect him/ her to yours.

Applications Outside Facebook: They will be facebook applications but not in Facebook mainsite. You will get a Facebook API in some other sites and you can log in with your Facebook login information and avail of those apps. Facebook Connect is one example.

Applications on Desktop: You deploy your Flash Platform application as an AIR application to the desktop instead of hosting it on a website. I am really interested to see some flash applications built for this.

So that is about it for now. Whenever we have an update we will share it with you.