Saturday, June 23, 2007

Top 10 best Facebook applications

You've got to hand it to Facebook. The rollout of Facebook Platform was a masterstroke, not only getting them kudos with developers but also making their site sticky as hell, with a seemingly constant supply of new applications to tempt you away from your work. Whilst many of the apps won't stay installed on your profile for long, there are a few diamonds in the rough. Below is a round-up of ten of the best.

BandTracker - automatically pulls in the artists from the Favourite Music section of your profile and alerts you when they're playing your city. Also creates decent aggregation pages around each band, pulling in videos from YouTube and lists from Last.fm.

Eating - A neat little app from restaurant review site menuism, enabling you to share your dining experiences and discover new eateries. Slightly let down by a North American bias (no, I don't want to travel to London, Ontario for my evening meal...)

Flixster - nice integration of the movie site of the same name (reviewed here) which pulls in your existing ratings (something iLike would do well to get sorted), shows what your friends have been watching and provides access to the fiendishly addictive Never-Ending Movie Quiz.

Friend Stats - creates a page of lists and charts visualising aggregate data on your facebook chums. So, now I know that the majority of my friends are liberal graduates who like music and drinking, watching Lost, listening to Muse and reading John Steinbeck...

Interview - like The Guardian Weekend magazine Q&A feature (only with a slightly smaller readership), Interview asks you a stream of user-submitted questions which you can then add to your profile, letting everyone know how witty and erudite you are.

iRead - expose your bookshelf to your friends, detailing what you've read, what you're reading now and what's next on your list. You can find books by author, title or ISBN or import your Amazon wishlist. Once added, you can rate, review or recommend each title and find others who have read it.

myTV - share your favourite YouTube videos with your friends without leaving the comfort of Facebook. A slick interface and the option to import your favourites from YouTube are the icing on the cake.

TV Shows
- release your inner Nick Horby and rank your favourite TV shows. There's 15,760 titles in the database, delivering fairly decent recommendations based on your list. The app also includes TV news and listings for the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.

Where I've Been - colour code a map of the world according to where you've lived, visited and want to visit. Turns out I'm not that well travelled after all...

wis.dm - encourages users to ask and answer yes/no questions on any conceivable topic. Strangely addictive although liable to quickly give away your moral and political leanings.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the iLike music game too - and am determined to put as much clear blue water between myself and Richard Sambrook as possible!

http://apps.facebook.com/ilike/challenge

Anonymous said...

Hang on... hasn't Facebook just nicked the goodies you've got on your blog? ;-)

Anonymous said...

You've changed, Dan.... Am mortally offended that the BBC Radio app didn't make your Top 10.

http://apps.facebook.com/bbclistenlive/

(These TV types, chunter, chunter.)

Dan Taylor said...

It wasn't launched, yer honour

Dfal said...

The Skewlbuoy LivePortal - flash application that aggregates interesting and relevant content into your profile
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2667790589


The Skewl Campus - integrates facebook with vBulletin
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2368627111

Anonymous said...

THis is one of the most innovative uses of the new platform....http://apps.facebook.com/thenewsroom

Anonymous said...

Another great app is My Diet, perfect for those needing tools and support to lose weight, it's got a really cool food and exercise diary.

http://apps.facebook.com/weightloss

Anonymous said...

There is a whole subculture behind the scenes playing this game: apps.facebook.com/passmethejoint

toonpunk said...

apps.facebook.com/passmethejoint

I have to say this is the best thing I have seen on facebook

Ranjani Ravi said...

thanks for sharing this!this is worth bookmarking.

I have compiled a list of 101 facebook applications in my blog ,Chk it out.

http://inscrutableingenue.blogspot.com/2007/11/101-cool-facebook-applications.html

Dr Abbate said...

This app is the best-kept secret on Facebook, so I'm not surprised it's not on anyone's list. It's for geeky philosophy types:

http://apps.facebook.com/philosophers/

Unknown said...

I believe this is the best wishlist application on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=6050364943

Anonymous said...

nice collection, i have added your site to my favourites in stumbleupon
http://kamal.stumbleupon.com

TBM said...

The best app for university students, provides free books which summarizes the important aspects of curriculum in many different university courses. I think they have 150 completely free books.

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=48503876751&ref=ts

Hugo Almada said...

morefanatics.

Which is the most popular team of the world?

http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=185737696344