So what is the determining success in developing a facebook application? In the facebook world it really comes down to the number of installs of the application and more importantly the number of daily active users. At the bottom of this post, I will share some numbers on local search applications in facebook.

Before I get into small application numbers, I want to highlight a feature about the YellowPages.ca application - building your own lists to share with friends and then map your lists. This application allows a user to create lists for private, semi-public and public on pretty much any topic. Here are some public user created lists:

Favorite Restaurants in Calgary - Map List.
Favorite Sports Stores in Montreal - Map List.
Favorite Toronto Restaurants - Map List.
Great Restaurants in Port Perry - Map List.
Places to Eat in Ottawa - Map List.

Some interesting lists, including one for my favorite places to eat in Ottawa.

Back to numbers of successful application usage. I grabbed these numbers from Adonomics.com, which aggregates usage on facebook applications. Here are some stats regarding application usage on facebook. Numbers are as of today.

The most successful application, in terms of installs is SuperWall with just under 43M installs and a daily active usage of 2%.

Funwall has the most active users at 1.8M from a total install base of 36.5M and a daily active usage of 5%.

Scrabulous (now being sued by Hasbro) has 3.9M installs and daily active usage of 506K or 13%.

So what about local search applications? First, from an expectation perspective, they are not even close to the above numbers. Facebook is still, at its core, a platform of entertainment. However, it is interesting to see how some of the local search player applications fair-out:

Yell Socialiser (UK) - 500 installs, 2 daily active users (0%)
Praize’n'raze (CDN and US) - 950 installs, 57 daily active users (6%)
YellowPages.ca (CDN) - 667 installs, 40 daily active users (6%)
Local Picks (Global) - 1.1M installs, 3349 daily active users (0%)
Lolodex (US) - 2800 installs, 15 daily active users (0%)

Over the past number of months, I worked with the Praized Team on the data distribution and traffic agreements for Yellow Pages Group Canada. Many people kept asking me what Sebastien was up to (I use to work with Sebastien at Yellow Pages Group and he is one person with whom I regard very highly) but had to keep quite out of respect as well as contractual obligations.

Now that it is launched, what I think you are going to see two things; 1) a user focused platform that I would bet is going to be very successful and 2) a model that demonstrates how publishers and new ventures can work together. For the start-ups they get the necessary data to ensure they can fully deploy their concept and a revenue model. For publishers they get exposure in the social space and targeted traffic to their online networks. This is a very exciting time and I am excited to be working with such innovative organizations such as Praized Media.

Some interesting posts on the Canadian launch of the iPhone that I have found interesting in the last week:

Today in the Globe and Mail, Rogers to unveil new data plan with iPhone, The head of Canada’s largest cellphone company says Apple Inc.’s iPhone will be a cornerstone of the new high-speed wireless world and as such will unveil a new price model for data services to drive adoption. The big question, still unanswered, is what the data plans will look like.

On Praized Media Blog, This Isn’t About The New iPhone, It seems like everyone is excited about the new iPhone that was introduced by Apple on Monday (many people are actually calling it the Jesusphone) but I think everyone’s missing the big picture. This is a good post that looks at the real impact of smart devices that goes beyond that of just the iPhone.

Of course the one aspect of the iPhone that is very interesting is the number of applications that you can access. You can check out all the applications that received “Staff Picks” by Apple. NOTE: these include all applications, not just Canadian focused.

I suspect over the course of the next 30-days you will see a number of Canadian based web applications come online that are designed for the iPhone.

I am happy to say that the application my labs team developed has been selected by the Apple team as a Staff Pick.

From the Apple Webapp page:

Now available on the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch’s Safari Mobile Browser. Find a local business in Canada, get a map using the build-in Maps application and make the phone call directly from your iPhone.

So how does it work and what does it look like?

First thing a business owner should do is go to YellowPages.ca and do a search for their business listing. Once again - I am using my mom’s business, The Bra Lady as an example. Once you are on your business listing click on the ? beside the Add These Tools To your Website.

When you click on the ? mark - this will launch a new window with some Javascript code that you can copy.

Take the Javascript code and add it to your website. In the case of TheBraLady.ca - we decided to add this code into the header of the website so that it is available on every page.

Finally - when a user selects this new button on your website - it launched a window that gives a user a multitude of ways in which they can share your business information.

And that’s it. Now your business contact information can be shared via email, address book, desktop, social media, print and instant messenger.

Pretty cool eh.

Of particular note in this post is the ability to embed these videos into 3rd party websites. For end customers this is a great way to leverage the video service on their own websites to generate a richer experience for customers who might type their URL directly. This service is available on YellowPages.ca. Under any video you can select “embed”, grab the code and place it on your website.

Here are some examples of local business video ads (embedded from YellowPages.ca):

Harley-Davidson Motorcycles Of Edmonton (1980) Ltd

Moto Prestige Cycle

Skintastic Laser & Cosmetic Clinic

This morning there were a couple of presentations such as the HR application that is used by Cirque du Soleil, a very impressive application to manage the talent site of their business as well as a preview of NBC’s site for the Olympics. Another example that I found is a good mix between high-design and a strong business model is the memorabilia site of the Hard Rock Cafe which balances the business side with new technology.