Developers can pay for Facebook 'face time'

As a way to aid applications in becoming more noticeable, Facebook is now offering an official "verification badge" for select developers. To become a "select developer," there's a fee attached.

Facebook's applications platform has over 20,000 apps listed, and for developers, getting your app noticed and picked up by users is a difficult task. Similar to the way music discovery site PureVolume lets artists buy premium listings, Facebook is now offering developers an official "verification badge," for a fee of $375 per submitted applications.

The project's documentation describes the fee as "intended to cover costs associated with the application review process." The submission process does not guarantee an app will receive the verification badge, as products must meet the site's standards of design, trustworthiness, and usefulness.

With the badge, applications will receive additional promotion from Facebook by increasing the information shown to users both in the applications roster and in newsfeeds of those using the app. The verification term lasts one year.

In the Facebook Developer blog, Program Manager Sandra Liu Huang says verification badges will begin to appear to users in early 2009.