by Kristen Nicole
MySpace launched a new feature on its application platform last night, which allows developers to distribute notifications to users regarding the apps those users have added to their MySpace account.
Why is this notable? Because notification alerts are the best way to distribute information about a given application. They’re the bridge that closes the gap between MySpace users and the applications themselves. They’re tiny reminders that the application a MySpace user has added to their account is still there, and needs some attention.
Notification alerts are also the worst thing that could happen to an application platform. OK, not the worst thing, but they’re easily regarded (or disregarded) as spam. Too many notifications about applications can feel like an overwhelming bombardment of irrelevant content to a user. They’d probably be more responsive to a notification alerting them to a new photo tag or a friend request.
It’s the reason why MySpace waited so long to allow developers to distribute notifications in such a manner. But how does MySpace plan on curbing the spam, now that it’s taken a considerable amount of time to work on this particular feature offering? The notifications will display in a MySpace user’s channel, which means they’ll be less assertive, hopefully translating into something that feels less spammy.
There’s a fine line that MySpace is walking here, especially as a good portion of MySpace activity has been hailed as spammy in the past few years. While Facebook is currently dealing with spammy attitudes towards applications and their interaction with end users, MySpace is being even more cautious in its future releases in order to avoid the perception of spammy behavior. Nevertheless, the opening up of notifications is a feature that’s highly requested by developers, and it’s ultimately up to the user to determine what types of apps they will keep on their profile.
That’s not to say that MySpace can’t continue to tweak things in order to make application notifications feel less spammy. I’ll be the first to admit that notifications can be annoying. When I log onto Facebook and see that only 3 of my 36 notifications aren’t app-related, my heart sinks a little. The prodding notification nudges enticing me to play a game or take a quiz can get irksome. So MySpace, Facebook and all the other platforms can have increased user options for selecting which apps send out notifications, as well as modifying frequency and distribution methods overall.