AN FRANCISCO, May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Facebook f8 Event --
Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive today announced two political
applications built on Facebook Platform, a development platform that
enables companies to integrate with the Facebook website and gain access to
millions of users. washingtonpost.com's "The Compass" and Slate's
"Political Futures" applications are now available for Facebook users
worldwide who are interested in becoming more engaged in present-day
politics.
washingtonpost.com's "The Compass" allows users to answer several
questions that serve to determine where along the political spectrum their
views fall. The results are then shared with the person's Facebook network
and they, in turn, are invited to answer. As the user's network responds to
the questions, s/he is able to see how their answers compare to create a
map of political ideology.
Slate's "Political Futures" application allows users to choose where
they would place a bet if they had $500 to wager on the outcome of the 2008
race for the White House. Leveraging Slate's "Political Futures" tool,
which databases the big three political prediction markets, the application
shows where the pretend wager falls in relation to real bets and maps out
how other people in a user's network placed their "bets."
When asked about Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive's decision to
introduce applications on Facebook, Caroline Little, CEO and publisher,
said: "These applications are an excellent opportunity for our websites to
engage and interact with Facebook's 24 million users. We are excited to
have a new way to share the political news we're known for with such an
active audience."
Facebook is a social utility that offers an efficient way for people to
stay connected with their friends and the people around them. Facebook
users communicate and share information through the social graph, the
network of connections and relationships between people. With more than 24
million active users, Facebook is the sixth-most trafficked website in the
United States.
"Facebook Platform creates an ecosystem for developers to build
applications that deeply integrate into Facebook and use its social graph,"
said Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook. "By enabling developers
to make applications within Facebook, we're working together to create a
better utility for millions of people."