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Thanks for the feedback, everybody. In Windows 8, we wanted to provide a way for folks to view their photos on other services knowing there would be few (if any) apps in the store at launch that would do so. Now there are many apps in the store that offer ways to view photos on other services and soon there will even be a Facebook app from Facebook. We’re confident Facebook will offer great ways to view and engage socially with photos on Facebook. We welcome Flickr to do the same. In addition, the People app still offers the ability to socially engage with your friends and even your own photos.
Heh, don't envy them rolling you out to give us this nonsense. We all get it, Facebook put pressure on MS to remove integration if there was to be an official Facebook app on Windows 8. Couldn't have the competition (Flickr) on there either.
It's ludicrous that fundamental design decisions are being driven by short-term business ones, to be frank. Remove your integration with the excuse that the 'marketplace' will pick up the slack, and you're in the same situation as Android and iOS. Guess what, apps can do that there too (and have, and are more mature, and are used by more people etc. etc. etc.)
Microsoft have been around a long time and are in a little bit of a trough, but to do a u-turn to appease a momentary blip of a service (Facebook) and allow them to dictate to your design team is weak. I know the culture at Microsoft is very corporate, but that's almost prostitution. Anyway, Facebook has floated, is in an a slow stagnation in its mature markets and is less relevant that it was two years ago. They are following the same pattern that every social platform based around a profile has, don't be fooled by their large (fudged) numbers. If MySpace and Facebook were in a different chronological order, nobody would have noticed.
People who use the photo app want to get at their photos. If Facebook throws a hissy fit, by all means get rid of the Facebook integration. Allow your users to choose between Microsoft and Facebook. Trust me, Facebook will be back asking for integration in no time - it's third party logins through their API that are keeping their share price inflated. At least get Flickr in there and stick it to the man (never thought I'd be saying that to a Microsoft employee)