Crappy Apps Infect Facebook
Posted by Nick O'Neill on January 10th, 2008 10:23 AMThis morning I spent a few minutes looking through the “Recently Popular” applications on Facebook and I have to say that I’m not impressed. Click on “Most Activity” in the application directory and you will be even more disappointed. Today, I am proud to present those applications that show up on the first page of “Most Activity”:
- Secret Revealer
- Who were you in a past life?
- What’s your sexual personality?
- On a deserted island with…
- Kral & Kraliçe
- Lil’ Green Patch
- Are you a jerk?
- Which rockstar are you?
- Funnest Person Contest
- Yes or No?
- Best buds
- What is your sexual personality?
- What is your Dance Style?
- Penis or Vagina?
- What kind of chocolate would you be?
- Which swear word are you?
- Is he your soulmate?
- What is your booze IQ?
- What Type of Music Are You?
This will not be a daily activity on this blog due to the lack of quality listed in the directory. Today, the number of the applications in the directory will surpass 13,000. This many applications has made the current application directory practically useless. This makes me wonder will there be a more efficient system for filtering throug the junk and determining which ones are worthwhile to try out?
One of the most disappointing applications is “What swear word are you?” The application asks you a list of 10 or 11 random questions. You are then forced to invite 20 people prior to finding out what swear word you are. I cannot possibly imagine the result of this survey being worthy of me inviting 20 of my closest friends to the application. Hundreds of thousands of Facebook users thought it was worthwhile though. Yesterday the application attracted close to 180,000 users.
Is there any value in creating applications like these? I can’t possibly imagine an advertiser deciding that it’s a good idea to advertise on the “What kind of slut are you?” application. What filtering tools would help you to find the best applications? Do you think these crappy applications are becoming a serious problem?
(4.64 out of 5)
(4.22 out of 5)
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But that doesn't mean we're only seeing crappy apps on Facebook, there are a number of apps that are beginning to provide real value to users, not least is Eat-A-Rama, our new restaurant sharing and discovery app that has the largest number of real restaurant listings in North America, over a quarter million at last count. It's an example of how you can offer people real utility that takes advantage of the social connections that Facebook has built in to its platform.
On another note, I recently looked at the Top 20 apps, according to Adonomics, and there's an interesting shift going on there. The list is populated with well-known apps like Super Wall and Graffiti and Vampires, etc. These are the juggernauts of the app world in terms of how many usere they have but what was interesting is that over 75% of them appear to be on the decline and not just a one-week decline but they appear to trend downward. Not sure if this will rectify itself but it could mean that a change is taking place. Who will take over the top spots? Who knows, but it could be apps that offer real usefulness. I, for one, hope so!
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If people want to find GOOD apps, I suggest they find a trusted app reviewer :)
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Alternatively they should develop an algorithm which "scores" applications based not on the number of users but the usage of the application and the time between installing it and removing it.
Finally they should introduce an accreditation system whereby developers could submit their application for consideration as a "Facebook Gold App" (or something similar)
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And yes, also there's a lot of crap tests... I don't see the point in socialize via crap tests.
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