Sun's position as technology provider for NBC Universal during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing gives them a special opportunity to use some Olympic hype to show off their Zembly platform for developing widgets. While the platform is still in private beta, Sun is publically demonstrating some Olympic-themed widget examples on Facebook.
The app, promoted widely on Sun blogs (although the link on the main Sun blog doesn't work), is a pool-type competition in which users attempt to predict who will win Olympic events. After users agree to the usual privacy notifications and installs it, they can pick their home countries and predict winners for each remaining Olympic event. Those who have no idea can simply click the Google-esque "I feel lucky" to have the fields filled automatically.
In the screenshot below it's interesting to note how many Sun apps are promoted at the bottom of the screen. When it comes to the app, lag is frustrating. An attempt to scroll through the swimmers in the Men's 100m Butterfly was so slow I finally gave up and used the lucky option for the other two medalists. While the opportunity for promoting the platform may be great, the amount of traffic may be contributing to the lag in the Facebook app, giving Zembly an inauspicious start.
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Thanks for your note. The "link on the main Sun blog" assumes that you are logged into Facebook. You can either click on the Play button in that blog that takes you here: http://zembly.com/mypicksbeijing/ or go to the about page for the app: http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=22549809219
Also, we are not seeing the lag in the app. Could you try it again - it may have been a temporary issue. If the problem persists, feel free to contact us.
A more discerning eye (from our team here) observed the "lag in the app" that you were seeing. It turned out to be a bug in our User Interface. It is now fixed. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Prakash, glad you found it before I got back to explain what I was seeing. As for always being logged in, I use two browsers for increased privacy. Facebook is relegated to a browser that only does social networking things and nothing I really need to be secured. I hope I'm not the only person who thinks that way. :)
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