Confusion Over Facebook's Brief Appearance in Ping for iTunes

[MacRumors]

Screenshot from Follow Music and People with Ping video tutorial

With yesterday's release of iTunes 10, Apple also deployed a new music-focused social network feature known as Ping. When it initially launched yesterday, users creating their profiles were presented with an option to use Facebook Connect to find friends who had already created their own Ping profiles. It is unclear, however, whether the feature was functioning properly, as a number of users reported that searches yielded no results.

Screenshot from Ping overview page

The Facebook Connect feature now seems to have disappeared from Ping, with many users not even realizing it was ever there. The flurry of activity has generated some confusion in the Apple media, especially after All Things Digital chatted with Steve Jobs about the lack of Facebook integration before people realized that the functionality was in fact partially present.

And Facebook is nowhere on Ping too. Currently, there is no linking, sharing or participation of any kind with Facebook - or Twitter or MySpace either - on Ping, which will work only on the iTunes software on computers, iPhones and iPods.

When I asked Jobs about that, he said Apple had indeed held talks with Facebook about a variety of unspecified partnerships related to Ping, but the discussions had gone nowhere.

The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted "onerous terms that we could not agree to."

Despite Jobs' claim that discussions with Facebook regarding Ping were unproductive, ample evidence of the integration is present in the form of the earlier Facebook Connect option in the service itself, as well as mentions and screenshots of it in Apple's promotional materials for Ping. Consequently, Apple observers are left scratching their heads until (or unless) Apple makes a statement about the incident.

Article Link: Confusion Over Facebook's Brief Appearance in Ping for iTunes

 

[Lucky736]

Not supposed to be there. Done.

 

[ajphares]

I linked my Facebook account when I set up my Ping account and it yielded no results...I just assumed that meant I was the first of my friends to sign up for Ping

 

[Reach]

Well, finding friends from Facebook or being able to search from contacts you have in the OS-contacts is surely needed..

 

[LazersGoPEWPEW]

I linked my Facebook account when I set up my Ping account and it yielded no results...I just assumed that meant I was the first of my friends to sign up for Ping

Same here. Then I went back to see if some had added it today and the feature was no where to be found.

 

[knightlie]

The reason, according to Jobs: Facebook wanted "onerous terms that we could not agree to."

Sharing all users personal data with whoever Facebook wanted to give it to, probably...

 

[davidangel]

More Evidence

From my email:

 

[sinsin07]

Good. The less Facebook the better. Let Apple do their own thing and maybe in the future they can run Facebook off the planet.

 

[184550]

I linked my Facebook account when I set up my Ping account and it yielded no results...I just assumed that meant I was the first of my friends to sign up for Ping

I think this is more likely given iTunes 10 late availability yesterday.

 

[reden]

Big Deal, maybe it was just buggy, why would they make a statement about it? So, now even when a button or any web element is broken you want a statement from Apple about it? Seriously.

 

[critter13]

Wondering where that went

K now I can stop looking for the elusive facebook link.

Anyone else notice the tab overhang?

 

[Rojo]

Oh good! I'm not crazy!
It really WAS there and is now gone.

But yeah... something like Facebook Connect or Twitter integration or SOMETHING needs to be there. Having to manually input all of my friends names just to see if they MIGHT be there is going to be a pain in the ass.

I'm also not sure about Ping in general. There's soooooo much potential here, but there's a lot that needs to be done. I'm surprised there's no way to quickly scan your iTunes library or pick favorite artists (more than just the 10), in order to build up a music "profile." I would love if it they took some great ideas from Last.fm, like showing musical "compatibility" and whatnot.

 

[Kadman]

Oh no. Apple and Facebook couldn't agree to terms. Here comes the drove of zealots with cries of, "Who would want that anyway?" "Facebook is terrible!", "Everyone knows MySpace is better anyway", and "Facebook must be unreasonable if they couldn't agree with good ole' Steve!"

Of course, if and when it does happen, these same people will be the first ones claiming how great the feature is and how Apple gave them something that made their lives better.

 

[CFreymarc]

Good. The less Facebook the better. Let Apple do their own thing and maybe in the future they can run Facebook off the planet.

Facebook and the rest of the Ministry of Information is dropping a brick over Apple moving into the social networking space. They blocked all friend lists into iTunes for fear of loosing an estimated 50% of their traffic by the end of the year. It will happen eventually and Facebook's write only policy of data will eventually have them on the same dot-com pile as MySpace.

As Arnold only said, "Judgment Day is inevitable, your actions only delayed it."

 

[Brinkman]

It also appears to be missing 64 bit version

 

[CFreymarc]

Oh no. Apple and Facebook couldn't agree to terms. Here comes the drove of zealots with cries of, "Who would want that anyway?" "Facebook is terrible!", "Everyone knows MySpace is better anyway", and "Facebook must be unreasonable if they couldn't agree with good ole' Steve!"

Of course, if and when it does happen, these same people will be the first ones claiming how great the feature is and how Apple gave them something that made their lives better.

I bet good money at least a few dozen zealot coders all of the world are working on a third party "Facebook to iTunes" friends list converter. My take the first versions will be out before the middle of this month since there are not many college exams this time of year.

 

[davidangel]

Big Deal, maybe it was just buggy, why would they make a statement about it? So, now even when a button or any web element is broken you want a statement from Apple about it? Seriously.

I think you're missing the point. As I posted earlier and other people have as well. Apple clearly made references to Facebook Connect capabilities. As of this post, they still talk about it here. So yeah, it'd be great to hear them explain themselves...

 

[StarshipTrooper]

mine worked fine when i logged it in last night. social networking things take time and people before they start to take shape. just like Genius took time before it got better, so will Ping. untie your panties and wait a couple weeks for everyone to get on board - artists and friends alike.

 

[smnc2030]

Answers some questions

I was wondering why I couldn't get any results from my Facebook search when I had talked to a few people and made sure they had signed up. I still want to know why it was there if it wasn't going to work. Seems silly.

 

[drumpat01]

I had the facebook connect button there as well when I first turned it on, but had no results. Figured I was just a fast adopter but yea now its gone

 

[frozencarbonite]

Without Facebook integration, Ping is pretty much useless. I can get my favorite artists' concert information on my Facebook news feed. I was really looking forward to seeing what other Facebook friends were listening to so I could check out new artists.

 

[cmaier]

What is the point of Ping again? Wouldn't the whole thing make more sense as nothing but hooks to Facebook and twitter instead of a new separate island of connections?

 

[Lucbert]

To me, Ping is basically useless without a Facebook Connect integration. It would make it so easy for me to see which ones of my friends are using Ping, but without it I have to typ each of my friends names in individually which is very annoying because I don't even know if they even use Ping.

I really hope Apple will bring back the Facebook option!

 

[Variant]

Without Facebook integration, Ping is pretty much useless. I can get my favorite artists' concert information on my Facebook news feed. I was really looking forward to seeing what other Facebook friends were listening to so I could check out new artists.

Agreed!

What is the point of Ping again? Wouldn't the whole thing make more sense as nothing but hooks to Facebook and twitter instead of a new separate island of connections?

When I saw the "Follow Lady GaGa" in the Ping previews, I assumed it was directly integrating the Pages feature of Facebook. It seems in actual fact, Apple is merely ripping off Facebook. Without any kind of Facebook integration, Ping will fail miserably.

 

[Scott549]

Good. The less Facebook the better. Let Apple do their own thing and maybe in the future they can run Facebook off the planet.

I don't think even Apple could do that. My question is, who needs another social network? You can already share information about music on Facebook.