Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Apple Mountain Lion: Why No Facebook?

    By Stan Schroeder | Mashable – Thu, Feb 16, 2012

    Mountain Lion, the new version of Mac OS X which Apple announced Thursday, is deeply connected with the online world -- Twitter, Flickr and Vimeo are all practically part of the OS -- but one very big name is once again missing: Facebook.

    With its 845 million active users, Facebook still overshadows Twitter, which had 100 million active users in September 2011. Despite competition from Twitter and Google's new kid on the block, Google+, Facebook is not a social network, it's the social network, and many Apple users would surely like to see it integrated more deeply into the OS.

    [More from Mashable: Apple Mountain Lion Embraces Flickr and Vimeo Sharing]

    Now, Facebook isn't 100% absent from OS X. In Mountain Lion, Apple did add the option to share to Facebook from QuickTime, and iPhoto has had Facebook sharing for some time. Even Apple, for all its influence and money, can't deny that Facebook is the most popular place on the web for sharing photos and videos. But the integration with the service is the absolute minimum, amounting to barely an acknowledgment.

    For some reason, Apple went with Twitter, leaving Facebook on the sidelines and adding another awkward silence to the uneasy relationship between the two companies.

    [More from Mashable: Today’s Top Stories: Facebook Account Verification, iPhone Contacts Controversy]

    SEE ALSO: Apple Unveils Mac OS X Mountain Lion: So Long iChat, Hello Twitter

    Close, But No Cigar

    It's been going on for a while. Apple's music social network, iTunes Ping, was originally slated to be integrated with Facebook, but Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were allegedly unable to work out the details. In the end, Apple went with Twitter (it ultimately didn't help Ping, which is now forgotten by almost everyone).

    The Facebook iPad app was, by most accounts, late -- Twitter's iPad app was available 13 months earlier. And finally, Apple's iOS 5 came with deep Twitter integration, and Facebook was not in the picture.

    Twitter, Twitter, Twitter -- notice a pattern there? Time and time again, Apple was apparently unable to work out a deal with Facebook, and every time it went with its comparatively lightweight, chirpy competitor. The fact that Twitter is the social network of choice in Mountain Lion is no surprise -- it's just a continuation of this trend.

    Good, But Not Great

    Officially, everything is hunky dory. "iOS is an important platform for Facebook and we have a good relationship with Apple, working closely with their developer relations team on our Facebook and Messenger apps," a Facebook spokesman told us, unwilling to comment on the matter further. Obviously, the two companies are working together in some capacity -- after all, Facebook has apps on all Apple platforms.

    But, judging by the integration of Facebook in Apple's products, a "good relationship" isn't a "great relationship," and it definitely isn't as cozy as Apple's relationship with Twitter.

    Part of the reason may be bad communication and mistrust between the two companies. For example, Apple reportedly didn't trust in Facebook’s ability to build a great iPhone application, and the shaky history between the two companies is now probably a hurdle in itself.

    Technical hurdles are a possibility, too. Perhaps the absence, at the OS-level, of Facebook, Google+ and YouTube is merely an API issue. The fact that Microsoft, Apple's long time arch-enemy, owns a small part of Facebook probably complicates matters, too.

    But there could be another, more important reason: Facebook has become too big of a competitor to Apple. Although both Twitter and Facebook make money from online advertising, Facebook is an app platform, and Twitter is not. This fact alone makes it just a little bit too close to what Apple is doing. Although Apple makes the majority of money selling hardware, the company also sells software, and lots of it.

    Put all of these reasons together, and it's quite possible that Apple doesn't really foresee a long-term relationship with Facebook without a messy divorce.

    The next iteration of Mac OS X might very well be the unification version -- the one that finally gathers Apple's smartphone, tablet and desktop computers under the umbrella of one OS. If we don't see Facebook integration by then, it's fair to say that these two friends will never get in bed together.

    New Logo

    Meet the Mountain Lion.

    Click here to view this gallery.

    This story originally published on Mashable here.

     

    4 comments

    • G. Manitley
      G. Manitley  •  3 mths ago
      "Why no Facebook"? Maybe because it a huge, virus-ridden, privacy-invading, waste of time?
    • Jacob
      Jacob  •  3 mths ago
      I'm starting to like this OS more and more.
    • Junk
      Junk  •  Monterey, California  •  3 mths ago
      No Facebook because Facebook would not approve of Apple using its APIs. Mark Zuck is the one who turned down Apple.

      So be it.

      Facebook will be second banana on Mac OS X and iOS because of this.
    • Hannah
      Hannah  •  Los Angeles, California  •  3 mths ago
      What about Google Plus?
     Post a comment
    [ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]
    [ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

    News For You

    Loading...