Archive for the ‘Entertainment’ Category
When Gift Giving Isn’t Spam
Monday, April 28th, 2008
This past weekend I was browsing through the Facebook applications directory and came across the “Send Ben & Jerry’s” application. My initial response was that this is yet another gift giving application. I then noticed that close to 4,000 people had used the application the previous day and almost 200,000 people had installed the application. This is an impressive number for a general Facebook application.
The reality is that non-generic versions of standard Facebook applications can actually succeed. Apparently popular brands can produce simple applications that grow virally. I would have thought that gift giving applications have already been dominated but it appears as though some applications are still figuring out ways to launch and succeed. What extra features does the Ben & Jerry’s application provide that traditional gift giving applications doesn’t already have?
Truthfully, not much. The one addition is the ability to unlock other gifts based on the volume of ice cream that you send to your friends. I decided not to barrage my friends with a bunch of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream goodness but it looks like a lot of other people are. If you want to send ice cream to your friends as well, check out the Send Ben & Jerry’s application.
Top 10 Reasons You’ve Had Too Much Facebook
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008There has been a significant amount of buzz over the past few days about the concept of a “Facebook Fast.” I have heard about people fasting from social networking for Lent and other spiritual holidays and it doesn’t seem like too bad of an idea. I obviously spend way too much time communicating on Facebook and now have an inbox that is overloaded with messages. Occasionally you can find yourself sucked into a game and suddenly waste an hour or too coming up with the most word in a game of Noggin.
As someone who’s job it is to be online practically all the time, I’m thinking that not just a Facebook fast but a computer fast would be a good idea. While social networking can help you expand your personal network, too much of it can become counter-productive. Just for fun, I’ve come up with the top 10 list of reasons you’ve had too much Facebook:
- Adding friends has suddenly become a game for you and you are constantly competing with your friends and family members to have the most contacts on Facebook.
- You always have an instance of Facebook running in one of your browser windows in the background. Bonus points if you have more than 5 instances because you are playing a game and browsing through your ex-girlfriend’s profile at the same time.
- If printed on paper, your application requests could easily wrap around the earth one time.
- Facebook messaging has become one of your primary tools for communication. If you have so many messages in your inbox that you can’t read them all then you definitely need a break.
- You are involved in more than 5 poke wars.
- You’ve added so many games that you don’t even know which ones are your favorites anymore.
- You are actively engaged in 10 or more Scrabulous games.
- Petting your friends’ (fluff)Friends has become a source of flirting for you.
- You find out through your newsfeed that you weren’t invited to an event and decide to hold a grudge against your friends for not inviting you.
- Your name is Bill Gates and you are forced to quit because you have way too many friend requests to handle.
Have any other Facebook addiction symptoms? Is it time for you to take a break from Facebook?
Facebook the New Art Gallery
Monday, February 4th, 2008
Every artist needs a medium, be it paint, music or rock, all great works need something to work with. This is no different in the digital age. The LA Times is reporting an interesting story about a Facebook application called Graffiti (I am pretty sure you have heard of it).
Graffiti recently held a online competition through Facebook that allowed artist to use its application to create works of art. Not all the art was static either. Some participants decided to use Graffiti’s ‘replay’ function that allowed them to save their work as it was being created so anyone could watch the creative process.
The competition yielded around 150 finalist with work that ranges from the truly beautiful to the amazingly thought provoking. I am simply amazed by the level of talent that this competition was able to attract. The creators of Graffiti should be proud of the repsonse they were able to generate and the artist should be equally as proud.
The competition focused on creating pieces that illustrated the importance of conservation and protecting nature. It is an interesting contrast to see something completely digital (the art) represent the protection of the purely natural.
I would love to see more artistic competitions and projects begin to emerge on Facebook. If any of you know of any other artistic competitions; be it poetry, music or whatever, let me know. This is by far my favorite entry, it practically screams digital green. What’s your favorite?
Secret Crush… Not Such a Secret
Friday, January 4th, 2008There is a good deal of buzz on the net today about ’secret-crush’ and how it is really a viral program that installs the much loved ZANGO! Our own Jonathan Kleiman wrote about it before the rest of the web even cared. By the way , great piece Jonathan. 
Does this really come as a shock to anyone out there that adware and spyware are finding their way into Facebook applications. The real shock to me is always that there isn’t more of them out there.
I am always amazed about the copious amounts of data people put about themselves on the web. I myself have more information about myeslf out there than I really care to think about.
I have always had a love hate relationship with spy and adware. I, like the rest of the world, hate it. At the same time however I always find it interesting to see how many of my fellow citizens hap-hazardly install applications and agree to pop up windows with out reading what they are agreeing to.
I just want to take another moment to thank Jonathan for breaking this story long before the rest of the web got wind of it, keep up the great work!
Go Animate Yourself, Buddy
Friday, December 28th, 2007Searching, as I do, for a non-useless application, I was thrilled to find GoAnimate! To put it simply, the app lets you create your own animation which can be a real blast. The app has some serious programming behind it and provides a ton of fun if you have time to play around.
You get to pick from a bunch of pre-made images, settings, items, speech bubbles, music, animations and special effects, and you can customize them however you want. You then animate your frames and make some funny stuff go down. The app has a political bend, with tons of politically charged characters to choose from like “Barack O.” and “Hilary C.” but you can also upload your own images or borrow uploaded images from others in the community.
After you’re finished with your animations, you can share them with the community. Honestly, his application might be the absolute coolest thing I’ve seen on Facebook so far.
I’m not nearly creative enough… but if you make something funny let us see in a comment!
Write A Novel In Three Words
Monday, December 17th, 2007Are you a big fan of writing but just can’t find the words to write an entire novel? Worry no more as you can now rely on the support of your friends and other members of Facebook to get the job done. The Just Three Words application is a simple concept that has powerful results. Users can either create a story from scratch or join another story. Each story has its own unique topic that has interesting twists and turns since each writer is limited to only three words per post.
There were some extremely well written pieces scattered throughout this application. With close to 5,000 daily users, it is not a surprise that this application has produced such impressive results. As I browsed through the various pieces created by the users of this application, the most common theme was a sexual one. Each piece sounded like a cheesy romance novel that you would find on the shelves of your local supermarket.
One story that I decided to participate in was about Facebook application and was created by my friend Dan Peguine. So far, the story has not become very elaborate. “Facebook apps are an enigma; some are ridiculously stupid and others mind-blowing. For example, the idea of writing an app where people make themselves heard through various voice recordings is absurd, yet also, well, sort of titillating.” I added the words “voice recordings is.” I think I am indeed a novelist at heart!
If you want to join the story with others, go check out the Just Three Words application.
Funny New Facebook Services
Monday, December 17th, 2007A site called Facebook Business Solutions is a pretty funny example of some false Facebook advertising services for businesses. I have included the pictures of the services below but I thought I would highly some of the best ones. Facebook Surf enables brands to track their customers every move across the web. Not only will they know which sites they have visited but they will also know how much time was spent at each one.
“Facebook Recycle” is another funny one. It displays all of a user’s trashed files from their personal computer into their newsfeed. One of the funniest quotes from the recycle application description is, “The last thing Facebook wants to be for the user is intrusive. We have designed the Facebook Recycle Application to be very clean and neat, and to sit nicely on any user’s Profile Page. It runs quietly in the background, collecting data from the user’s personal computer, and requires a minimal amount of RAM.” This one is definitely less intrusive than Facebook Beacon 
“Facebook Receipt” keeps physical copies of each of your physical receipts from purchases in stores. This is valuable data for advertisers! “Facebook Locate” enables brands to track their customer’s every move. And for that worst case scenario, “If the user heads in the opposite direction of your store, don’t give up! Facebook Locate will then begin to text various sales deals and promotions that you provide us.” Yes, Facebook Locate will bombard the consumer with advertisements enticing them to change direction and return to your store.
If you aren’t making purchases in my brand’s store all day long then you aren’t spending as much as you could! Check out the screenshots below. One thing that I should note is that this site is not affiliated with Facebook. They have literally duplicated the design of Facebook and as such I would assume that they will soon receive cease and desist letters in the coming days.
Facebook Surf
Facebook Image Scan
Facebook Recycle
Facebook Diary
PetrolHead Brings Racing to Facebook
Wednesday, November 28th, 2007Yesterday one of my friends invited me to race them on Facebook. It was an entertaining invite request because the car that she wanted to race me in was a 2002 Saab 93. Today I decided to accept her request and check out the application. I was actually glad that I ended up installing the application because it is an entertaining one. When you add the application you are prompted to select a vehicle from a list of lower quality cars including a 1993 Ford Festiva, Renault Twingo, an ATV, 2003 Ford Ranger and a few others.
As many of my friends did, I chose the 2002 Saab 93 because it had the best picture. The lesson learned was never to judge a car by its picture. I ended up winning a measly 3 out of 10 races. Definitely a poor performance! The goal is straight forward. Race your friends and other Facebook members. You receive points for each race that you win and those points can be used to upgrade to new cars. Apparently you need to get 10,000 points to upgrade to the next level which is the equivalent of winning 50 races. At this pace it’s going to take me over a week to upgrade.
This application is a clever twist on the classic “kick apps” like Zombies, Vampires, Food Fight and other classic Facebook applications. I definitely recommend checking it out and racing your friends. It’s a great way to waste a few minutes of your day! If you want to race your friends, go grab the PetrolHead application.
My Car Page
Friends Car Page
Showroom Page
Celebrate the Holidays on Facebook
Friday, November 23rd, 2007Over the past few days I have been seeing an increasing number of holiday applications show up on Facebook. Given that this is the holiday season I thought it would be worthwhile to post a couple of the holiday applications available to users. One of the best ones I’ve seen so far is the Hanukkah Lights application. As you would imagine, the Hanukkah Lights application provides you with a menorah for your Facebook profile. On each night of Hanukkah, your menorah will automatically be lit at around sundown. If you celebrate Hanukkah, check out the Hanukkah Lights application.
The other holiday application is the Be Santa application. Created by the same people that developed the Lotto application. Be Santa enables you to create your own wish list of presents by writing “letters to santa” as well as give gifts to your friends. Those gifts are then given to your friends on Christmas day. An additional bonus to this application is a giveaway on Christmas day. $2500 of the gifts that have been given by users will be purchased and delivered to the recipients. If you want to Be Santa this Christmas, go grab the Be Santa application.
I wasn’t able to find any Kwanza applications but there were a few Ramadan applications but usage appeared sparse. Given the large base of Muslims on Facebook I see this as an opportunity for application developers. Additionally there is a large Turkish and Muslim base on Facebook that would be a great target for this type of application. Unfortunately I don’t enough about the holiday and don’t have the time to develop an application. If you want to create a popular application, I would suggest trying to develop the Ramadan celebration application.
Are there any holidays that I’m missing? Have you seen any other interesting holiday applications?
