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A little over a month ago I announced the launch of the Animoto Facebook application. At the time I suggested that this application could easily become a competitor to Slide’s primary application that became popularized via millions of MySpace profiles. Well it looks as though my prediction has come true. Animoto is now the 16th largest application based on daily active users and the application continues to grow.

While Slide has over 10 times the number of active users that Animoto currently has on Facebook, Animoto has destroyed Slide when it comes to their own game: slide shows. A quick look at Slide’s Slide Shows application shows a measly 3,000 active daily users and horrible reviews. Does this mean the end of Slide? Definitely not but it definitely means the beginning of a new leader in the dynamic slideshow space.

Animoto differentiates itself from others (dynamic flash based slideshows) by actually creating a rendered video of your photos intermixed with audio. You can choose to upload your own audio content or you can select from their library. This application is a perfect example of an application that succeeded even with a late entry to the platform. If you spend time developing valuable applications that help users express themselves more effectively, you will surely have a popular application on your hands. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out Animoto, go install the Animoto Facebook application.

As a sample of what can be produced I have included a video of a Social Times party I threw at the end of last year.

Earlier today I had the opportunity to speak with David Recordon of Six Apart. He has been working on a Facebook application for the past few months that is pretty interesting and extremely simple. The application enables bloggers quickly post their blog posts from within Facebook and send notifications of that post to Facebook, Twitter and Pownce. I’ve been wondering for a long time why nobody had created an effective blogging software for Facebook.

While there is currently no WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor, it creates a simple interface for posting to your Typepad, Wordpres, Blogger or Movable Type blog. As David Recordon told me on the phone earlier today, the goal is to “bridge the gap between social networking and blogging.” The application makes it easier for bloggers to pull in their content from their own sites.

The application is extremely simple but David expressed the desire to add on features if the users express a need for more. You can find more by reading about it on his post on his blog. Six Apart decided not to add any viral components to this application because they wanted to focus on utility. While this will most likely have a negative impact on the growth of the application it will most definitely have a positive impact on the user’s experience.

If you want to blog within Facebook go check out the Blog It application.

The causes application has been up for almost a year now but many critics have complained about the lack of money earned for each cause even though millions of users have become supporters. “Support the Campaign for Cancer Research” has attracted over 3 million users and $61,440 has been donated. This amounts to approximately $0.02 per user. Dank Apps attempted to find a solution to this problem and came up with a set of ad supported social change applications.

Users earn money by generating karma points through inviting friends, sending gifts and participating in the community. As you earn more karma points, the donation goes up. Since launching yesterday, the Earn for Breast Cancer application has generated almost $63 wial ith only 212 users. If enough users join this application, it actually has a chance at generating substantial money for charities.

There have been other attempts at this on Facebook but so far they have failed. One of the breast cancer awareness applications required that you download a toolbar to earn money. The only problem with that is nobody wants a toolbar on their computer. As such Dank Apps thinks they have a solution. If the 3 million members that added the Campaign for Breast Cancer Research on causes, the application would generate $60,000 just for the users adding the app. After interacting with the application, significantly more could be generated.

If you want to help bring change but don’t want to make a donation, go install the Earn for Breast Cancer application, Earn for Aids application or the Stop Climate Change application.

Yesterday I read a press release about a new American Airlines application. As usual the release provided no link to the physical application but after searching I was able to find what I was looking for. The new Travel Bag application, provides users with a forum for talking about their travel experiences. It’s pretty much a travel journal for travelers. I can understand the ease of use of uploading Facebook photos via my mobile device but logging in to this application to describe where I’ve been traveling seems a little bit tedious.

Additionally, this application has absolutely no engaging content for me to interact with. If I’m not currently traveling I have absolutely no use for this application. Get this, I can’t even view my friends’ travel logs within the application! I hate to really criticize an application but when you figure American Airlines probably spent $30k building this application, you would hope that they had produced something highly useful.

One commenter on the application’s wall summed it up well:

I’m glad to hear that AA is getting such great reviews. That’s really great. However, I believe that AA would be an even better company if it went bankrupt. From really bad customer service to the computers that are unable to go back and look at previous reservation data, I would recommend this airline to anyone who is looking for a waste of time and money.

I don’t think this commenter spoke for all the users because one or two (possibly seeded) commenters appeared to actually enjoy the application. It’s great to see travel companies making an effort to enter the social networking space but next time they may want to focus on actually making the application social.

If keeping a travel journal sounds like something that would appeal to you on Facebook then go check out the Travel Bag application.

Are you a fanatic about complete transparency in this digital era? If you are then you must add the new FindMe application to your Facebook profile. Every 15 minutes your approximate location will be updated in your Facebook status thanks to a simple technology similar to Google Maps mobile technology which determines where you are based on cell phone towers. I’m not quite sure why on earth I would want to let anybody know where I am at any given minute but this is a great tool for parents that want to track their activity offline.

Did your girlfriend say she was going to a movie with her friends today? Why is she driving around another state then? You can now put your relationship to the test by adding the FindMe application. Then again I would suggest against this application if you want to maintain any sort of normalcy in your life. Imagine your friends calling you “Hey man you just drove by my house but didn’t stop by! Great friend you are!”

This application also makes sense for those hard working truck drivers but really how many truck drivers are really active on Facebook? This tool raises the bar for invasive technology but then again you have to opt into it. Do you think this application is useful? Will you be installing it? If you want to you can go grab the Findme application.

When the Facebook platform first launched, you wouldn’t believe how many people contacted me and said “I’m going to make a beer pong application.” It has been 10 months since the platform launched and finally a top notch beer pong application has been launched. As you would expect, it’s also very popular. In just a few days almost 15,000 people have added the application and the growth is steady.

Mike Lazerow of Buddy Media, the company that developed this game, sent me an email when it launched and I had to check it out. I ended up playing the game for a couple hours trying to get on the leader board. Interesting enough I came very close to reaching the top 10 but I didn’t make it. I had however perfected my game so if you want to test the master, I suggest you challenge me to a round of beer pong.

As has been predicted, social gaming applications have become the focus of Facebook for the most part. There are also utility applications but there is only so much value that you can easily add to Facebook profiles. I think games are the way to go and from an advertising perspective, custom games are highly valuable. You get targeted individuals engaged in a branded environment for an extended period of time. If you want to play a round of beer pong, go check out the Campus U Beer Pong application.

I often get in conversations with others about success and how to obtain it. For each of us success is different but I can always recommend a few key books that helped make me who I am today. I typically reference “Think and Grow Rich,” as well as “How to Win Friends and Influence People” and “Never Eat Alone.” Those three books create the Nick O’Neill book trifecta. There’s one other book I’ve recently added to my lineup and that’s “The Secret.”

While the video may initially come off as cheesy, there are a lot of valuable lessons. One of the key components of that book is the concept of “vision boards” that you use to place an image of your goal so you know what you are working toward. Another component is your personal list of goals that you constantly need to review. The closest thing I’ve seen to mimicking the tools necessary for success on Facebook is the On Track application.

The On Track application provides you with a way to list goals, create vision boards and manage projects. It’s a great tool and I highly recommend checking it out if you want somewhere to keep track of your goals. I think this is a great iteration and what would be a nice addition is some sort of internal community where members can ask each other about tricks for overcoming challenges and how to maintain goals.

Right now the application appears to be less focused on being social but I definitely see an opportunity for this to succeed. By leveraging a little more community and building out their features a little more, this could be an amazing application for those that are …. well, trying to stay on track! If you are one of those people that have high goals and want a place to manage them, check out the On Track application.

One of the largest problems for developers since the platform launched last May has been the lack of robust application statistics that provide access to all the demographic statistics within Facebook. Instead, developers have opted to use Google Analytics which fails to provide demographic information outside of approximate location. While Facebook provides some demographic statistics, the time period for each of the stats is significantly limited.

Last week while attending the Graphing Social Patterns conference in San Diego I had the opportunity to speak with Ian Swanson, CEO of Sometrics, about the solutions that his company is providing. Sometrics provides developers with access to statistics encompassing installs and uninstalls, age, gender, number of friends and location. They also currently provide live chat support for those developers that need assistance with getting things configured.

The application has been in beta since last October when it demoed at the first Graphing Social Patterns conference. I was really excited to post about it at the time but was told not to. Five months later the application is live and ready for developers. If you are looking for more useful statistics on your application, I highly recommend checking out the new Sometrics Application.

Weekly Statistics

Applications Overview

Daily Stats

Earlier this week at SXSW, Animoto announced the launch of their new Facebook application. Animoto is a really slick photo-video montage creation tool that integrates audio and smooth motion effects that move to the beat of the song you choose. I use Animoto anytime I’m in need of displaying a photo montage on my websites because it instantly adds a professional touch.

The new Facebook application enables you to instantly select photos from your existing Facebook albums. The one downfall of this application is that the videos are limited to 30 seconds unless you register at the main Animoto website. I’ve registered previously and it’s well worth it. While I think this may provide users with an incentive to their website, I think it would be better just to unlock it or try to charge a small fee for longer videos.

One of the best features of this application is an existing library of high quality music clips that can overlay your videos. The ultimate aim is to also provide musicians with a way to virally spread their music. One other feature announced just yesterday is one click publishing for YouTube. Unfortunately that feature is not currently included in the Facebook application but being able to display the slick video slideshows on your profile is really great.

I would like to be able to embed the videos on my website as well from the Facebook application but that feature is not included. If you would like to experience Animoto’s complete feature set, I highly recommend signing up for their main website. If you would like to integrate the videos into your profile, go grab the Animoto Videos application.

Erick Schonfeld has posted about two new applications launched by Amazon. The first application is a robust wishlist application that pulls your friends’ wishlists from their Amazon profile. If you haven’t set up your wishlist it will automatically generate a few suggestions based on your friend’s interests. This system hasn’t been perfected though.

If you take a look at the screenshot from one of my friends below, you’ll notice a bunch of CDs called “Old School Jams.” That’s because my friend is a fan of the movie Old School.

The other application, Amazon Grapevine, provides you with a newsfeed of all of your Amazon activities aside from purchases. This is a similar concept to Facebook Beacon except, as Erick pointed out, Amazon was not a Facebook Beacon partner.

It’s unfortunate that the Grapevine application doesn’t show my recent purchases because that is pretty much the only activity that I participate in on Amazon aside from adding products to my cart. For the more active Amazon members, this application could be highly useful. The next addition to this application should be the integration of affiliate codes so that I get paid for any products that my friends purchase because of my own Amazon activity.

While these applications have not been perfected, it is a great first step and excellent to see larger organizations making an effort to build a presence on Facebook. The next test will be whether the larger companies stick around.

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