[bemmu]

I had two of those badge apps. One of those apps was making around $2000/day for a time, then $100/day after the changed profile and lowered CPMs. I sold that app so I can't really know, but I think it would be making even less now. Am I angry / disappointed? Not so much. That would be like winning the lottery twice in a row, and then being upset when you don't win for a third time. The app took almost no effort to create initially, although getting it to scale was an interesting challenge.

Now developers will need to come up with things that are more compelling, and this will bring better experiences to the users. Not that people were somehow coerced or spammed to install my badges. They spread by people noticing the badges on their friends' profiles, and installing them from there. Loyalty in Google Analytics showed a lot of people visiting regularly to tweak the layout of their badge, and I got a lot of nice feedback.

The company that I most look up to with admiration is Playfish. Those guys really know how to create experiences that are genuinely fun, but still viral enough to spread. I wish one day I will be skilled enough to be able to come up with apps that have quality matching what they offer.