WebProNews

Facebook applications can be bad enough when they're upfront about their identities; getting tricked into installing them is the last thing (aside from various privacy violations) that any user needs.  So Facebook is addressing this problem with some new restrictions on developers.

"Starting today, we'll begin blocking links in Mini-Feed, Notifications, and Notification Emails which lead to the installation of another application in the hopes that developers focus on user experience and engagement being paramount, not deceiving users for the sake of growth," wrote Dave Morin on the Facebook Developers blog.

This won't, of course, save users from their friends - if ol' Bob wants to toss silly invites your way every day of the week, tough luck.  But it should cut down on some of the less well-meaning spam, and is guaranteed to earn Facebook a few points on the "good intentions" front.

In fact, while covering this development, Nick O'Neill noted, "Facebook has imposed a number of restrictions and has slowly clamped down on spammy activities available to application developers.  The new announcement by Facebook underlines their continuing dedication to battle spam both within applications and elsewhere on their site."

It's a pretty decent way for Facebook to start 2008.  Our compliments to Morin, in particular, for making his post after 6 PM on New Year's Day.