Developers complained — and Facebook listened.

Late last month, Facebook enacted a new spam control system to cut down on the rampant spam on the company’s application platform. But the company quickly came under fire when the new controls apparently cut out a number of legitimate applications. Disgruntled developers quickly took to Facebook’s message boards and the press to complain about the company’s lack of communication prior to the shut-downs.

It looks like Facebook heard those complaints loud and clear. On Thursday the company announced several changes to its application developer tools and its app spam control policy to give developers more insight into how their apps are being received by the larger community — before those complaints prompt spam control action. Facebook is now rolling out a “news feed” tab in its developer dashboard that shows the positive and negative feedback apps have received in an easy-to-read graph form.

In addition, Facebook said it has softened the way it responds to app complaints. Now, when Facebook receives excessive negative feedback on an app, it will first disable only the aspect of the app that is receiving the majority of complaints, rather than deleting the app entirely. For instance, Facebook engineer Mike Vernal wrote in a blog post announcing the changes: “If an app is generating a lot of negative feedback via chat messages, we will take action only on that app’s ability to publish to chat but otherwise leave the app intact.”

Facebook also says it will now disable, rather than delete, apps that receive negative feedback across multiple channels. Users will not be able to access an app in disabled mode, but developers will still be able to access, test, and edit it. Developers will be able to appeal when their apps are disabled entirely or in a granular fashion.

All in all, these are very smart moves for Facebook to make. The swift response to last month’s criticism shows that it is taking its developers seriously; as does Facebook’s willingness to be more transparent about how they are regulating the apps. After all, developer trust is key to any API strategy.

Here is a look at the new dashboard “news feed” feature:

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Something is percolating in Facebook’s Seattle office.

On Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg told reporters in a visit to Facebook Seattle the company plans to “launch something awesome” next week, according to a Reuters report published Thursday. The new product was developed at Facebook’s Seattle office, he said. Facebook Seattle, which opened in March and currently has around 40 employees, is the company’s only engineering outfit outside of its Silicon Valley headquarters.

As of press time, Facebook’s public relations team has not responded to GigaOM’s request for comment on the impending launch.

The new product could well be an iPad app, something that has been notably absent from Facebook’s portfolio for some time now. According to reports published earlier this month, Facebook has been readying an iPad app for over a year and was in the final stages of testing as of mid-June. Meanwhile, the company is also understood to be building an HTML5-based platform to serve a mobile version of its site through the web, rather than through a native app interface.

One thing is certain: Between all the IPOs, blockbuster fundraising events, and major product launches, it has been a very busy summer for the tech industry. And with Facebook apparently planning to kick off July in “awesome” fashion, it looks like 2011 may not have one of those traditional summer slumps at all.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):

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Orange UK has a long-running tradition of coming up with quirky ways to recharge your phone while enjoying the Glastonbury Festival every year, and 2011 is proving no different. This time around, it’s a T-shirt that generates an electric charge from the sound around it — rendering it ideal for front-row crowd-surfing types — though the provided tech details go no further than to tell us that piezoelectrics and the absorption of vibration are involved. We find ourselves overcome by the suspicion that you’ll never be able to get much meaningful utility out of this rather unstylish garment, but then it does give you a plausible excuse for pushing your way nearer to the stage, and if anyone objects, you can consider it a great conversation starter. So whatever happens, you win, fashion loses.

Orange Sound Charge T-shirt will juice up your phone while you listen to the bass go boom originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 04:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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