MySpace rival Facebook is handing out cash incentives for developers to create compelling programs on the social network, offering up to $250,000 to those who develop apps that are both
"innovative and disruptive." The grants will come out of the $10 million recently raised by Facebook from its primary backers Accel Capital and The Founders Fund.
In the four months
since CEO Mark Zuckerberg opened Facebook to outside developers, the number of embeddable mini-apps or "widgets" on user profiles has skyrocketed to 4,000. Zuckerberg believes that cash prizes will
encourage developers to create applications and users to spend more time on the site. Some of the more popular applications include scrabble games, the music sharing service iLike and daily fortune
cookies.
The cash prizes range from $25,000 to $250,000, for applications the review board deems to be good. The contest is restricted to companies or individuals that have not taken an venture capital money.