Facebook in major shift to HTML5

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Facebook in major shift to HTML5

Aims to recreate its full web experience on mobile devices, in another blow to the app store model

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 28 September, 2011

Facebook's potential to disrupt the mobile status quo is unrealized as yet, but it is lurking, particularly in the social giant's HTML5 activities. It will now develop mobile applications mainly using the browser-based web standard, which could accelerate the move away from native apps, and the cracks appearing in the App Store model.

A web service which mirrors or enhances the experience of a downloaded app significantly weakens the control that a platform company like Apple has over its user base. This has already been seen in examples like the Financial Times newspaper's HTML5 app, which has already outsold its former iOS native app, with no revenue cut going to Apple. The impact of Facebook, whose usage is increasingly shifting towards mobile devices, would be vastly greater.

Erick Tseng, head of mobile products at the web company, told the Mobilize conference in San Francisco that Facebook now has an internal tool for developing mobile apps using HTML5, and the goal is to replicate every feature of the full web site on mobile systems, enabling synchronized updates. The tool, internally called Faceweb, was used to introduce continuous news feed updates to mobile customers last week, said Tseng, as reported by IDG News.

"The reason we're so excited about Faceweb is because by using HTML5 instead of all native development ... it allows us to actually keep pace with desktop features," he told the conference. This would also enhance Facebook's ability to become a full mobile platform rather than just a social network, becoming the hub of all a user's communications activity and supporting a huge range of third party features via APIs. Those APIs have already been used by OEMs such as HTC and Sony Ericsson, Tseng said, to integrate Facebook functionality deeply into handsets so that users do not need to log in or go to the app. "That's a platform," he commented.

Tseng refused to comment on whether the upcoming iOS 5 update will feature Facebook integration - Apple has already said that it will include Twitter integration.