As a few titans of tech blogging recently began to go back and forth over whether platform-enhanced Facebook is really worth the hassle, we lowly interns over here at TechCrunch decided to list our favorite Facebook applications to see whether third-party additions have really improved our social networking lives.
As early twenty-somethings who experienced Facebook when it was exclusively for college students and it differentiated itself from MySpace, with its simplicity and compelling lack of extraneous features, we figure we are better (at least in some respects) than these latecomers at judging the current viability of Facebook as a place where we will increasingly want to spend our time.
The following list of applications is meant, of course, to share with you some of the Facebook platform’s standouts. However, at the same time it reflects how much value the open platform has so far given to Facebook. Frankly, we struggled to find ten applications that we felt belonged on a Top 10 list and not because there were so many good applications from which to choose. On the contrary, the vast majority of Facebook’s 2,300+ applications strike us as frivolous and unworthy of the time and effort it takes to even install them. Our experience with this roundup suggests that Facebook as a development platform has a long way to go before fulfilling the grand visions some have had for it.
It is unclear whether the disappointing state of third-party applications on Facebook is the fault of the platform or its developers. The relative newness of the platform could simply be the reason for its lack of exciting applications. Regardless, developers may want to take note of these picks (and the most popular apps listed on Facebook) and see if they can’t best them. Hopefully, in a year or so we will be able to pick ten other Facebook applications that actually make a substantial difference in our lives.
#1: iLike
iLike lets you add music to your profile and find your favorite concerts (not to mention see who else is going!). Bonus: Use it to get free mp3’s that match your tastes and try to beat your friends at the Music Challenge.”
#2: Graffiti
“Graffiti lets you draw on your friends’ profiles.”
#3: Where I’ve Been
“A detailed, interactive world map, show everyone where you’ve been, lived and where you want to go. It includes a zoom tool and all the US States and there is no need to create an account on any third party site. Have Fun!”
#4: Zoho Online Office
“Zoho Online Application”
#5: Fantasy Stock Exchange
“Be your own hedge fund manager with $50 million starting portfolios! FSX is about one thing – making investing fun! Investing will never be boring again, start trading now!”
#6: Flickr Photos by Dustin Mierau
“Flickr Photos brings the wonderful world of Flickr to Facebook. Share your Flickr photos with friends, browse their Flickr photo collections and more!”
#7: Honesty Box
“Honesty Box lets users send each other anonymous messages, removing any inhibitions and letting people be completely honest with you.”
#8: Box.net Files
“Upload music, documents, photos, and files to your Facebook profile. Free and easy to use! ”
#9: Superpoke!
“Why just poke when you can pinch, hug, tickle, pwn or even throw sheep?”
#10: The Friend Match
“Rate how well your friends would do as couples while letting them hook you up with their friends!”
Bonus: TechCrunch
Shameless, we know.
“This application places the latest TechCrunch headlines directly on your profile. TechCrunch profiles the companies, products and events that are defining and transforming the new web.”
Update: Robert Scoble’s list is here. Orli Yakuel’s is here.
You know, that’s one of the great things about America: Interns. I wonder if a kiwi can get some… hmmm.
Nice post guys!
Lemons get some, so why not a kiwi. LOL, maybe Arrington got lucky and thus, the chick flick on TC home page.
http://www.read...y_2007/2007/07/
[end of shameless plug]
I’m a little bias since I work for kyte but I think the kyte’s facebook app is worth checking out:
http://www.face...p?id=2428876514
#23 – Tim: We agree – it would be much, much better if the TechCrunch app refreshed itself. We didn’t make the thing, though – a company called PDG+creative did. Of course, we’d be happy if someone else came along and made a TC app that did auto-refresh.
As for the interns here at TC, there are 7 of us. And we only have to run the power behind the TC servers by running in a wheel when Mike gets mad at us.
No offense to TC, but does Facebook pay well ? I’m kinda tired of all this facebook crap.
It’s time for our daily dosage of Facebook press on TC. Open up………..
yeah vlad, because facebook really needs to pay for promotion. In case you haven’t noticed, its a popular website.
Hi Mark,
1) Check out this app we made that you all will love: http://apps.fac....com/my-resume/ – it imports your LinkedIn profile and recommendations to your Facebook
2) Get in touch if you’d like some help with the auto-refresh. We made an app that does a daily refresh for 230,000 users (http://apps.fac...ly_bible_verse/) – a cron job is needed to do this.
joe (from MyChurch.org)
Mark Hendrickson: Care to provide a brief profile of each intern (academic background, experience, interests, etc)?
Auto refresh is in the works – expect it sometime tomorrow. Thanks for the feedback.
Ryan
PDG+creative
#65 – Ryan: Awesome!
@ Jan Postter – #64
Hi, I’m one of the TC interns. Just graduated from Pacific Union College. I’ve got a hungry appetite for innovative ideas, start-ups, indie music, socio-economic issues, start-ups that tackle socio-economic issues and running. Spent last summer doing research and marketing for a microfinance institution in Bangalore, India.
Looking forward to meeting as many TechCrunch readers as I can at events and such.
Thanks for the self-introduction Andrew Meyer — it’s much appreciated. Any other intern feels like stepping into the spotlight?
It’d be interesting if the interns started blogging about their experiences.
go bears!!
Hey Andrew, thanks for the intro. PUC’s got a beautiful campus. Looking forward to hearing more from you guys.
I thought I’d just add that MediaFire.com launched an unlimited file hosting application recently as well. It supports any file type and allows for the creation and sharing of unlimited nested folders.
If you’ve got some free time, check it out at: http://apps.fac...p?id=2359257917
Hey TC interns -
Glad you like Graffiti, thanks
Feel free to send me a message if you have any questions about the app.
We’ve got plans for some AWESOME apps in the coming weeks, as well as improvements to Graffiti.
Tim
Make sure to check out http://apps.fac...k.com/graffiti/
Wow, writing applications has become like making little videos of your cat and spamming them to the world. One day (next week) we will all make an app of our own. The world will be filled with millions of them 99% of which will largely be ignored and considered crap. Not at all a bad thing though! Just as Youtube helped millions become semi-expert video editors websites like Facebook will help encourage mass ameture protoyping and coding. Making money will likely never be an issue or a driving motive in this latest form of UGC. Just like with “the tube” people will be so proud of their popularity and creativity they won’t care if it made them cash or not… It’s freakin cool riiiight?
Facebook, this sure was a brilliant way to get all those “users” to do the work for you wasn’t it?
None of this post was in any way meant to sound cynical or terse.
-mp
Judging from the ranking of applications by popularity, Books Iread is probably the biggest books app. And the Flixter app is pretty fun too, when you’re trying to figure out a movie to rent or go see.
i dont like to any application to my facebook …
dunno why … guess i’m just too plain vanilla …
hehe …
Here’s a listing of a late twenty-something, if you give a damn…
http://kronicle...ebook-apps.html
What about Baby Puncher?!
http://apps.fac...om/babypuncher/
@Andrew Meyer: Microcredit / finance is good stuff.
Can I pay for a version of TC WITHOUT DAILY POSTS ABOUT FACEBOOK
check out Blipcast for Facebook…..its interesting….
http://apps.fac...ok.com/blipcast
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the SearchGive application. It’s a search engine that donates ad revenue to charities. Check it out:
http://www.face...66628e18844dadf
@ #64
I’m another one of the interns here. I’m going into my sophomore year at Stanford and currently pursuing a degree in International Relations with a minor in classical studies/Italian. I am fascinated by how the internet changes the world daily on an international level, not only through the economics of different startups and other companies but also the transfer of ideas around the globe. I hope to establish a career in either international politics or business.
Personally, I love traveling, fishing and scuba diving. I also play football for Stanford. I look forward to hopefully meeting more readers in the future.
@ #64
Hey Everyone, I’m also one of the TechCrunch interns. In the fall I’ll be a junior at Grand Valley State University (Grand Rapids, MI), majoring in business economics and marketing. Like Andrew I’m interested in innovation, startups and some economic issues. I also enjoy playing basketball, traveling, learning as much as possible and doing new things. Instead of thinking of the glass as being half full or half empty, I’m usually trying to figure out how I can get a bigger glass. In the near future I plan on working on a startup.
Hopefully I’ll get to meet many of you in the future.
Here is my proposal for Facebook:
We are experiencing somewhat of an interesting phenomenon..
Facebook started as a network for college students… so, naturally, the age groups were lower…
now, we have reached a point where everyone is joining… including our parents, and professional contacts…
obviously, this is good because it shows the popularity of the platform…
what I do propose is that facebook adds in functionality for you to be able to divide up your friends into groups: i.e. friends, family, business contacts, etc…
then you could have each group see only certain elements of your profile…
I’d be happy to hear what others think…
Aydin.
At the risk of sounding like a curmudgeon, how much time you have to waste in a given day? 95% of of people that are your “friends” in an online social networking site aren’t really friends. Why do you care if you know where those people have been? Or that they can poke/smack you?
Sure, if I were a college or high school student this stuff would be a great use of my copious free time. Or I supposed if I was paid to blog about the “next great thing” I’d get all excited about these little time wasters.
As a real adult, with an actual job, family and responsibilities, my free time is extremely limited. I continually search for ways to spend less time distracted by the “shiny information” on the Internet, and more time having real life (face-to-face) interaction with my actual family members, close friends and other organizations I give my time to.
I’m not saying there’s no place in life for diversion, or that social networking sites can’t help you find things you might not otherwise know (”e.g. “look at this band I might like that I’ve never heard of”, “there’s someone I haven’t talked to in years”, etc.). But get real, mostly it’s just digital crack or mental masturbation.
The endless reading of gossip blogs, updating your status field, finding new “friends” or just reading the stream of trivia about the people “connected” to you (whom you will likely never meet in real life) on a social networking site is not the path to a properly balanced life, imho.
Thanks Andrew Phillips and Peter Sauer; your introductions are much appreciated! What does your job scope at TC entail?
just quoted you in a Guardian blog post- you’re thoughts would be appreciated:
http://blogs.gu...a_facebook.html
Also see http://digg.com...pps_for_College
Hey, I want to add one to the collection! http://apps.fac...com/thenewsroom
http://www.face...p?id=2401170682
The iLike “On Tour” feature could use a little tuning. It’s currently showing Hank Williams (Senior) as “On Tour Now.” According to WikiPedia, he died in 1953 after injecting himself with morphine. Should be a good tour.
BTW, when I went to verify iLike’s behavior–I checked it yesterday–FaceBook was down (again).
I still love them both
Haven’t heard of some of the apps listed. Will try out later. Thanks for the post
Hey, Nice and informative post. create facebook application and boost your business.
http://www.facebookster.com
Awesome list amazing..
The best facebook applications are:
Notes
Already there: Use it and learn the html tags to improve your scribbling. Don’t use ready made applications where you post your top 5’s. Instead write a good text using your Notes application with your top 6. Be creative.
MyStuff
Lets you embed any html code into wall or boxes for example you can put a flashgame or a youtube clip from another site into your lefthandside wall. Works great and gives your page that extra sting.
SocialRSS
Hook up to your best newsfeeds such as New York Times, The Independent, National Geographic. Looks great in your lefthandside wall, and you can have multiple tabbed newsfeeds.
WeatherChannel
Post a five day prognosis for your friends or yourself with nice facebook styled graphics. Keeps check regularly of the weather where you and your friends live.
What I’m Listening to – from last.fm.
Sign up to the premiere music site for music listeners last.fm and then get this application into your facebook page. Also fits in your lefthandside wall and add’s your scrobbled tracks to it whenever you listen in Windows media player.
I really like the gouls and ghost in this Free Halloween gift app to send to facebook friends. think there called Halloween Designer Pumpkins.
http://apps.fac...weendes_wzbetz/