Yesterday on TWiG, Leo and Jeff and I discussed Facebook integration in Ping–Leo didn’t know it was there, but looking at the screenshots on Apple’s site, before I got the iTunes 10 download, I said it was there. But even though the Ping web page reads “Find even more music fans…by connecting to your Facebook account” right now, Kara Swisher reports that Steve Jobs told her there’s no Facebook in Ping because they wanted “onerous terms that we could not agree to.” So, I stand corrected. Ping is a completely walled garden.
8 Comments
tz
One Ping to rule them all, One Ping to find them,
One Ping to bring them all and in the iTunes bind them
In the Land of Apple where the Servers lie.
Jason Trommetter
Which means that Appple’s Ping is completely useless.
jdunham
Interestingly enough the Facebook connect was available last night right after the download was available. I tried it but of course none of my facebook friends were on it yet. This morning I checked and it was gone altogether.
I still show Ping in my facebook application settings….
Justin Cardinal
This must have been a very last minute decision, and something that could be changed without pushing a new version of iTunes. I downloaded iTunes 10 last night, enabled Ping, and had the option to connect to Facebook. I did and, of course, none of my friends were yet on Ping. I haven’t looked at it again this morning, but everyone is saying there’s no Facebook integration in Ping, so apparently Apple changed their minds overnight!
Jonathon Sciola
You’re the best Gina. Thanks. Also interesting look at Facebook versus Google competition one of the links on the TWIG feed. Facebook looks to trump Google in the longer term financially due to more money streams.
Stuart Hurd
It’s great news that Facebook isn’t involved in Ping. If Apple done a social network Leo would not have left and came back. Do we want Facebook’s privacy issues attached to our iTunes music collection and even worse, our iTunes store accounts?!?
Michael Pate
You were correct when you said it. It just changed later.
Personally, I have bought very little from iTunes over the years because I didn’t want to have to deal with drm. Most of my purchases have come from Amazon or eMusic. So I am having trouble deciding if ping is really looking at my music collection or just the tiny percentage that was purchased from Apple.
The thing that Google showed with Wave and Buzz is that if these tools don’t get mass adoption instantly, they just never seem to take off. Right now, this thing looks like it is on the same trajectory as Vox.
khabalox
+1 Internets to you, tz.
Also, good to know there is one more social network for me to ignore.