Frictionless: read Facebook social news stories without installing apps (opens in new tab)

(nikcub.appspot.com)

31 pointsbl4k14y ago6 comments

6 comments

The guardian is one of the very few of these apps which, when you click on one of the stories, will still redirect you to their site if you click "no" when asked to install the app. From then on you will go straight to the story upon clicking them and are never asked about the app again. They deserve kudos for this.

All the other news outlets I've seen keep you on facebook if you don't install the app, which is where this plugin comes in.

Unlike others I haven't blocked these stories because my list is small enough that I actually care what the people on it are reading. This plugin will be useful.

nikcub14y ago

this plugin began life a few days ago as a single line of javascript that would auto-click those close dialogs. we went from there and got it working with the other apps.

when the new API is released to all developers there will be a lot more of these apps. we wrote this in a pretty generic way, so it should continue to work when the new frictionless sharing apps are released.

bhuga14y ago

Too bad I already blocked all of these social news readers a while ago, for all of same reasons this extension hopes to solve.

greggb14y ago

I did the same, but with just hiding them from the timeline. It was becoming obvious that Facebook was trying to shove these new apps down our throats since even with only a friend or two using them, they would stay at the top of the timeline.

jrockway14y ago

I love that I'm finally old enough to read an article about the Internet and have absolutely no idea what it's talking about.

Shenglong14y ago

Awesome. I hate installing Facebook apps - and talk about satisfying a need!

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