Not thrilled that Apple’s Ping music service doesn’t integrate with Facebook? Well, Apple feels the same way — that’s allegedly why Steve Jobs invited Mark Zuckerberg over for dinner to talk.
When Apple first launched the music discovery and social networking service inside iTunes(), users could use Facebook Connect to access information stored in their Facebook() accounts such as friends lists. It was important to the service’s success — after all, without that feature you’d have to search for each new friend by name rather than just importing your Facebook friends.
Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s happened. Facebook blocked Ping’s Connect integration because Apple hadn’t made a deal for the social network’s support. There’s no longer any mention of Facebook in Ping().
The Los Angeles Times Tech Blog reports that the two uber-famous, influential and wealthy CEOs were spotted on a stroll in Palo Alto two weeks ago, and that Jobs had invited Zuckerberg to his home for dinner. Presumably, Jobs was trying to negotiate better terms for connecting Ping with Facebook.
Apple had originally planned to tie Ping very closely with Facebook, but the deal fell through. Jobs said Facebook’s terms were “onerous.” Frankly, it’s hard to imagine that they could have been so onerous that it wouldn’t have been worth it in the end.
When Ping first launched, we were a little bit skeptical, in part because it lives in a ghetto of its own. It doesn’t interact with other social networks at all, and that breaks one of the cardinal rules of social media if you ask us.
Here’s to hoping that Jobs and Zuckerberg’s meeting was fruitful, and we’ll see some kind of Facebook integration in the future.
