Top 10 Facebook Apps (from two perspectives)

August 1, 2007 By

OK, the TechCrunch interns tell us about their top 10 favorite Facebook applications. Now, since the interns are 20-somethings I expected that I’d have a different take on what we needed and so I talked through it on my Kyte.tv channel.

Here’s the TechCrunch Intern’s apps:

1. iLike (music app).
2. Graffiti (way to draw little lame cartoons on your Facebook profile).
3. Where I’ve Been (a way to brag to your friends that you’ve been to more countries than they have).
4. Zoho Online Office (a way to share Zoho’s apps with your friends).
5. Fantasy Stock Exchange (fun game, I wonder which stocks they are picking).
6. Flickr Photos.
7. Honesty Box. (A way to send anonymous messages. I already have comments on my blog for that reason.)
8. Box.net files. Useful way to share files.
9. Superpoke. A serious 40 something wouldn’t be caught dead pinching, hugging, tickling his friends.
10. Friend match. 40 somethings don’t need more friends.
11. Bonus: TechCrunch.

My favorite Facebook apps:

1. Google Reader Shared Items. This is way more useful for those who read a lot of feeds. Plus it shows you who has the most popular blog posts in the past few hours.
2. Twitter/Pownce/Jaiku apps. Pick the one you’re on. That lets your Facebook readers keep up with you, no matter where you post.
3. The video application. Lets you send video messages to all your friends from your computer’s webcam.
4. Kyte.tv. You see it here on this post (if you’re reading on my blog — lots of feed readers strip it out). But you also see the same thing on Facebook. You can chat with people live there on that app too.
5. BlogTips. If you’re looking to blog better, use this app.
6. Upcoming Calendar app. Come on, don’t 20-somethings have to keep track of all the events that are coming their way?
7. Blog Friends. Don’t the interns have any friends with blogs? This is how you track them.
8. WordPress. If you blog on WordPress or WordPress.com, this is the app for you. Shows your posts AND your comments. I thought every 20-something had a WordPress blog?
9. Ustream.tv. This isn’t important to everyone (who here other than Chris Pirillo has a streaming video show). But I included it here cause I have to wonder about a 20 something who isn’t into streaming video. Don’t you guys watch Justin.tv?
10. SkypeMe. Lets you use Skype to call me.
11. FaceReviews. It’s a Website that reviews Facebook applications.
12. iLike. Hey, at least we matched up on that one and the Zoho one (although I don’t have any Zoho stuff I want to share publicly yet).

What do you think? Which Facebook apps are you using, if you’re on Facebook?

I don’t add any of the silly ones, so don’t tell me about the Ninja app or anything like that.

[kyte.tv 6118]

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  • http://salted.com/ Paul Farnell

    “Upcoming Calendar app. Come on, don’t 20-somethings have to keep track of all the events that are coming their way?”

    Speaking as a 20-something, almost all the social stuff I’m invited to originates as a Facebook event these days. I use Upcoming for conferences and geek meetups, though.

  • http://salted.com/ Paul Farnell

    “Upcoming Calendar app. Come on, don’t 20-somethings have to keep track of all the events that are coming their way?”

    Speaking as a 20-something, almost all the social stuff I’m invited to originates as a Facebook event these days. I use Upcoming for conferences and geek meetups, though.

  • http://www.kyte.tv/ Marius

    Well, how surprising: I am using kyte.tv on my profile!

  • http://www.kyte.tv Marius

    Well, how surprising: I am using kyte.tv on my profile!

  • http://www.charleslau.com/ Charles Online Review

    Oh i didn’t know face book can do so much things… seldom use that even though I have signed up for an account with them. thanks for the tip! Gotta go for a re-visit again.

  • http://www.charleslau.com Charles Online Review

    Oh i didn’t know face book can do so much things… seldom use that even though I have signed up for an account with them. thanks for the tip! Gotta go for a re-visit again.

  • http://www.watzatsong.com/ Raphaël Arbuz

    We, at WatZatSong, have just launched a music quiz application. Here is the link if you fancy having a look:
    http://apps.facebook.com/watzatsong/

    Cheers,

    Raphael / WatZatSong

  • http://www.kyte.tv/ Marius

    btw, i forgot to mention: my age: 27 ;-)

  • http://www.kyte.tv Marius

    btw, i forgot to mention: my age: 27 ;-)

  • http://www.watzatsong.com Raphaël Arbuz

    We, at WatZatSong, have just launched a music quiz application. Here is the link if you fancy having a look:
    http://apps.facebook.com/watzatsong/

    Cheers,

    Raphael / WatZatSong

  • http://www.momathome.com/ Judi Sohn

    This is the difference between the list of a 20-something who wants to use Facebook to connect with friends and be entertained, and a not-so-20-something who wants to use Facebook to push out content and build a media brand.

    Neither is the wrong answer, but the TechCrunch list goes back to heart of Facebook where every profile is equal and applications are as much about what you take from another profile as what you broadcast out through your own. For you, it’s the Scoble channel and that’s fine, since those of us connected to you through Facebook know that’s why we’re there. No illusions (and I’m much closer to your age than the TC intern’s).

    You use the majority of your “friends” purely to get content that you can then push out through your own profile, and to collect an audience, and your application list reflects that. And that’s just fine. Anyone who doesn’t like it can simply not have you in their friends list.

  • http://www.momathome.com Judi Sohn

    This is the difference between the list of a 20-something who wants to use Facebook to connect with friends and be entertained, and a not-so-20-something who wants to use Facebook to push out content and build a media brand.

    Neither is the wrong answer, but the TechCrunch list goes back to heart of Facebook where every profile is equal and applications are as much about what you take from another profile as what you broadcast out through your own. For you, it’s the Scoble channel and that’s fine, since those of us connected to you through Facebook know that’s why we’re there. No illusions (and I’m much closer to your age than the TC intern’s).

    You use the majority of your “friends” purely to get content that you can then push out through your own profile, and to collect an audience, and your application list reflects that. And that’s just fine. Anyone who doesn’t like it can simply not have you in their friends list.

  • Tom Servo

    That kyte.tv thing crashes my browser, every time I try to load the page.

  • Tom Servo

    That kyte.tv thing crashes my browser, every time I try to load the page.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Tom: what browser?

    Judi: One problem with your theory. Facebook itself is two way. It brings me TONS of stuff that YOU DO.

    Google Reader app, for instance, shows me what my friends are sharing. That’s INVALUABLE for me.

    Video app brings me tons of videos FROM MY FRIENDS.

    BlogTips? Tips FROM my friends!

    Kyte.tv? Did you know you can upload video to my channel? Go ahead and try. Everyone will see it.

    WordPress? Displays YOUR comments (in fact your comment is already displayed on my Facebook page).

    BlogFriends? Displays OTHER PEOPLE’s blogs.

    SkypeMe? Let’s YOU call me.

    Etc. Etc. If you think you aren’t equal in this game you’re wrong. You should see my feed when I sign onto Facebook. It doesn’t show me what I did. It shows me what YOU do.

  • http://www.hiq.ro/blog/florin Florin Grozea (Hi-Q)

    I like Photos, Bill Monk (this was done for me:-), Yahoo Videos, Google Reader&iLike&Twitter of course.

    And I like Radar because I travel so much and I cand instantly send pictures from my mobile phone to my friends! For free!

    And I use MyTv just when I am bored and want to see what everyone else is watching.

  • http://scobleizer.com/ Robert Scoble

    Tom: what browser?

    Judi: One problem with your theory. Facebook itself is two way. It brings me TONS of stuff that YOU DO.

    Google Reader app, for instance, shows me what my friends are sharing. That’s INVALUABLE for me.

    Video app brings me tons of videos FROM MY FRIENDS.

    BlogTips? Tips FROM my friends!

    Kyte.tv? Did you know you can upload video to my channel? Go ahead and try. Everyone will see it.

    WordPress? Displays YOUR comments (in fact your comment is already displayed on my Facebook page).

    BlogFriends? Displays OTHER PEOPLE’s blogs.

    SkypeMe? Let’s YOU call me.

    Etc. Etc. If you think you aren’t equal in this game you’re wrong. You should see my feed when I sign onto Facebook. It doesn’t show me what I did. It shows me what YOU do.

  • http://www.hiq.ro/blog/florin Florin Grozea (Hi-Q)

    I like Photos, Bill Monk (this was done for me:-), Yahoo Videos, Google Reader&iLike&Twitter of course.

    And I like Radar because I travel so much and I cand instantly send pictures from my mobile phone to my friends! For free!

    And I use MyTv just when I am bored and want to see what everyone else is watching.

  • Jack

    Last.fm’s new app.

    I’ll also put a vote in for iLike and box.net. (I’m 28 and three quarters, for the record!)

  • Jack

    Last.fm’s new app.

    I’ll also put a vote in for iLike and box.net. (I’m 28 and three quarters, for the record!)

  • jofarnold

    And the best thing is I found this post through Blog Friends’ new “friend of a friend” function! It must be working well ;)

    BTW, big thanks again for your input in the early stages – without which we’d certainly have had another fun time dealing with Guy Kawasaki’s almost-as-gargantuan friends list when he joined yesterday! I wonder if Facebook will name that bug after you…

    Jof – i-together.com

  • jofarnold

    And the best thing is I found this post through Blog Friends’ new “friend of a friend” function! It must be working well ;)

    BTW, big thanks again for your input in the early stages – without which we’d certainly have had another fun time dealing with Guy Kawasaki’s almost-as-gargantuan friends list when he joined yesterday! I wonder if Facebook will name that bug after you…

    Jof – i-together.com

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  • http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/ John

    I;m a huge fan of the “Where I’ve Been” map. Much nicer looking than “Where I’ve been” but after trying to enter 38 countries and 40+ states I gave up. An “add by list” option would be much better.

    Also try CafePress.com’s app if your a blogger!

  • http://gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/ John

    I;m a huge fan of the “Where I’ve Been” map. Much nicer looking than “Where I’ve been” but after trying to enter 38 countries and 40+ states I gave up. An “add by list” option would be much better.

    Also try CafePress.com’s app if your a blogger!

  • http://www.momathome.com/ Judi Sohn

    But that’s my point, Robert. Not everything is about DOING.

    The majority of my Facebook friends may post a few pictures at best. Maybe a Twitter or two. Many are not blogging, microblogging, vblogging or thinking about broadcasting feeds as they’re reading them. They’re just reading, and thinking, and communicating purely for conversation…and playing.

    When you have friends over for dinner, do you sit and talk and laugh and exchanges stories and ideas based on your shared interests and experiences…or do you drag out your projector and do a presentation on what interests *you* and then watch as they make a presentation about what interests them?

    To you it may be two-way, but if those 4,220 friends of yours aren’t creating content they’re mostly invisible to you. Creating The ME Channel is not the entire Facebook story.

  • http://www.momathome.com Judi Sohn

    But that’s my point, Robert. Not everything is about DOING.

    The majority of my Facebook friends may post a few pictures at best. Maybe a Twitter or two. Many are not blogging, microblogging, vblogging or thinking about broadcasting feeds as they’re reading them. They’re just reading, and thinking, and communicating purely for conversation…and playing.

    When you have friends over for dinner, do you sit and talk and laugh and exchanges stories and ideas based on your shared interests and experiences…or do you drag out your projector and do a presentation on what interests *you* and then watch as they make a presentation about what interests them?

    To you it may be two-way, but if those 4,220 friends of yours aren’t creating content they’re mostly invisible to you. Creating The ME Channel is not the entire Facebook story.

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  • http://www.pr-squared.com/ Todd Defren

    Hey Robert – I think you might dig our new Newshound app; it allows you to use a bookmarklet to save any website/news article (and comment on it) for instantaneous display on your FB profile.

    You can also display your friends’ top picks if you want, and subscribe via RSS.

    It’s similar to the Google Reader Shared Items (which I am sure you wouldn’t give up!), except it doesn’t require you or your friends to be using the Google Reader, and, it allows you to be more spontaneous: I’m sure you run across plenty of cool stuff online that you discovered outside the bounds of your Google Reader?

    Here’s the link to check it out: http://apps.facebook.com/wmnewshound/

    Thanks… Now I’m off to check out all YOUR faves (since I am closer to 40 than 20, unfortunately).

  • http://www.pr-squared.com Todd Defren

    Hey Robert – I think you might dig our new Newshound app; it allows you to use a bookmarklet to save any website/news article (and comment on it) for instantaneous display on your FB profile.

    You can also display your friends’ top picks if you want, and subscribe via RSS.

    It’s similar to the Google Reader Shared Items (which I am sure you wouldn’t give up!), except it doesn’t require you or your friends to be using the Google Reader, and, it allows you to be more spontaneous: I’m sure you run across plenty of cool stuff online that you discovered outside the bounds of your Google Reader?

    Here’s the link to check it out: http://apps.facebook.com/wmnewshound/

    Thanks… Now I’m off to check out all YOUR faves (since I am closer to 40 than 20, unfortunately).

  • http://www.geise.com/ PXLated

    Jeeez Robert…3:00am…do you ever sleep? ;-)

  • http://www.geise.com PXLated

    Jeeez Robert…3:00am…do you ever sleep? ;-)

  • http://trueconfessions.wordpress.com/ Ellen Gerstein

    What, you have something against being able to throw sheep at someone?

    I’d have to vote for the Last.fm app too. Even though I find it a bit cumbersome, it really is an amazing thing.

  • http://trueconfessions.wordpress.com Ellen Gerstein

    What, you have something against being able to throw sheep at someone?

    I’d have to vote for the Last.fm app too. Even though I find it a bit cumbersome, it really is an amazing thing.

  • http://darmfield.com dawn m. armfield

    Unfortunately, the WordPress app only works on the WordPress.com blogs — not the stand-alones (yet). They say they *may* work on one but that the plugin will take some time. Bummer — because I’d love to do that with my WordPress blog.

    The other apps you list are good (and I’m a 40-something) except, again, the blog friends can’t find my WordPress feed (even when I put it in manually) so it won’t work. Another bummer.

    I really enjoy your vidoe shares. The Google Reader app is probably my favorite of all of them.

  • http://girl-inchoate.com dawn

    Unfortunately, the WordPress app only works on the WordPress.com blogs — not the stand-alones (yet). They say they *may* work on one but that the plugin will take some time. Bummer — because I’d love to do that with my WordPress blog.

    The other apps you list are good (and I’m a 40-something) except, again, the blog friends can’t find my WordPress feed (even when I put it in manually) so it won’t work. Another bummer.

    I really enjoy your vidoe shares. The Google Reader app is probably my favorite of all of them.

  • http://www.apprate.com/ Jeremy Toeman

    If anyone wants to weigh in on their own favorites, check out our site, http://www.apprate.com, which allows the community to vote on FB Apps.

  • http://www.apprate.com Jeremy Toeman

    If anyone wants to weigh in on their own favorites, check out our site, http://www.apprate.com, which allows the community to vote on FB Apps.

  • Rainer

    This PlayMyGame app lets you create your own games from your pics right in facebook and then post that game to your profile, pretty sweet:

    http://apps.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=3252160566&b

  • Rainer

    This PlayMyGame app lets you create your own games from your pics right in facebook and then post that game to your profile, pretty sweet:

    http://apps.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=3252160566&b

  • http://www.kyte.tv/ Marius

    @ Tom: It should work on popular browsers with the latest flash player installed. Please send an email to feedback (at) kyte.tv, I am sure we can solve this issue!

  • http://www.kyte.tv Marius

    @ Tom: It should work on popular browsers with the latest flash player installed. Please send an email to feedback (at) kyte.tv, I am sure we can solve this issue!

  • http://mrkaiser.wordpress.com/ Dev Gutpa

    Many other social type sites (digg, del.icio.us, last.fm) have many applications for facebook. Especially the digg and del.icio.us apps, as there look and feel is very facebook without any of that junk UI.

  • http://mrkaiser.wordpress.com Dev Gutpa

    Many other social type sites (digg, del.icio.us, last.fm) have many applications for facebook. Especially the digg and del.icio.us apps, as there look and feel is very facebook without any of that junk UI.

  • http://2advent.com/ Chris Jackson

    I havent found the Pownce application – the pownce api isnt out yet i think.

  • http://2advent.com/ Chris Jackson

    I havent found the Pownce application – the pownce api isnt out yet i think.

  • http://darrenstuart.com/ Darren Stuart
  • http://darrenstuart.com Darren Stuart
  • simon

    ok so not all that tech related, but the Canadian Politics (and US version) app I think is an great example of the diversity of uses for facebook.

  • simon

    ok so not all that tech related, but the Canadian Politics (and US version) app I think is an great example of the diversity of uses for facebook.

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