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There could be a lot more notifications from Facebook on the way. The company's rolled out a beta version of a new notifications API, a tool for developers that lets all Facebook apps send notifications to users.
This could open the floodgates to a plethora of notes under Facebook's "notification jewel," where that little red number will start counting itself higher than ever, especially if the user has signed up for lots of apps.
Of course, you can always get rid of an app's notifications -- you simply click on the X in the upper right of a notification box, and the messages will stop. For example, here's how the box will look for the Tester app:
It's a good thing this routine is so easy, especially since as soon as this developer tool becomes ubiquitous, any Facebook app you've subscribed to will be able to send you notifications without first asking for your permission.
Along with this capability, Facebook is instructing those developers who might abuse it to attempt to build "high-quality notifications." Facebook software engineer Bo Zhang urges app developers, "Don't make it look like spam -- we all know the words on the DO NOT CLICK list -- i.e. 'Click Here!' 'Check this out!' 'You have to see this...' or 'Here’s something free!'”
Let us know in the comments if you think this new tool will result in more convenience for you, or just more noise.