MyCalendar, the application which apparently updates you about your friends’ birthdays has surprisingly jumped to second on the application leaderboard. The reason we previously haven’t posted about MyCalendar is that the company’s user base is split across two identical applications which each have around 15 million monthly active users now. What is so remarkable about the application? Not much to be honest.
The two applications have attracted millions of users by using an interesting trick to get users to invite their friends. When you go to “Add a Birthday” it is actually a form for inviting your friends to the application, inviting them to post their birthday. What’s funny is that there is absolutely no need for getting updates about an individual’s birthday given that Facebook already has this built in.
The one addition is that you can get receive email alerts from MyCalendar. While useful it’s hardly original. The one social feature of the application is the ability to share your calendar with others. I haven’t tried that out though because I’m afraid it may end up spamming one of my contacts. MyCalendar is interesting in that it’s not anything special from a technical aspect (pretty much any web developer could build it).
The one thing that the application is excellent at is harvesting emails and given that they’ve had close to 30 million users just in the past month, the company must have hundreds of thousands of emails at this point. More than providing actual value, this application would be a spammers paradise. That’s not to suggest that this application is actively spamming users (since I have no idea) but it is most definitely questionable.
With three banner advertisements on each page, the application is far short of spectacular with a serious need of an upgrade. I’m honestly surprised that this application has become so large but it’s currently competing with LivingSocial for the top spot. I have to admit that it’s a bit disappointing to see an application like this perform so well. Have you installed MyCalendar? Have you found it to be useful?
![[Inside Social Apps 2012]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/ISA2012_336x100_F_RegisterNow.gif)
![[AllFacebook Stats: Facebook Analytics for Your Business]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/stpro_allfacebookstats.gif)
![[How can Facebook change your business?]](http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/themes/allfacebook2/images/FMB_A_MAY2011_336x100_F.gif)
THE REASON IT IS PROBABLY SO POPULAR IS DUE TO FACEBOOK'S MORONIC REDESIGN THAT PUT IT'S OWN HANDY LITTLE BIRTHDAY REMINDER WAY OFF THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE SO THAT YOU NEVER SEE THE DAMN THING ANYMORE.
MEH.
The upper case above is entirely intentional because I'm still pissed off at the way they fucked up the utility of the right hand side in the main Facebook display. Used to be you could see birthdays right there. Now they're shoved down too far to see when you log in. Morons.
So, this blather about "Gosh I'm surprised that such a stupid app is so popular" is entirely ignoring the way in which Facebook isn't providing that info to its users anymore. Which should have been obvious as the tip of your nose except that y'all are so busy genuflecting to The Most Worshipful And Mighty Facebook *bow*bow*bow* you never even saw that.
Again. Meh.
Comment by anon — May 1, 2009 @ 4:05 pm
The answer to the post’s question is that Facebook is an ever-increasing pool of mediocrity in both it’s users and developers. This trend will continue until Facebook collapses and the next thing comes along.
Comment by Michael O'Neill — May 1, 2009 @ 5:33 pm
I keep getting mycalenday invites from friends joining facebook newly, so they are not aware of fb birthday reminders which needs scrolling to the bottom of page. But I wonder how new guys find it so quickly!
Comment by Sudha Jamthe — May 2, 2009 @ 2:17 pm
this application is a joke. has little purpose other than propagating itself. for getting email reminders about birthdays (and other handy features) i would instead recommend using HTTP://WWW.SENDIBLE.COM
Comment by James Kirchmer — May 2, 2009 @ 6:23 pm
I agree with annon:
"THE REASON IT IS PROBABLY SO POPULAR IS DUE TO FACEBOOK’S MORONIC REDESIGN THAT PUT IT’S OWN HANDY LITTLE BIRTHDAY REMINDER WAY OFF THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE SO THAT YOU NEVER SEE THE DAMN THING ANYMORE."
Comment by Zafarali Ahmed — May 3, 2009 @ 12:42 am
I added My Calendar to my facebook presence and almost immediately started getting all sorts of dangerous sites opening up. I was alerted to this by the WOT plugin I have on Firefox which effectively warns you about sites with a dubious reputation. I regret using My Calendar and am trying to GET RID OF IT!
Comment by budgiesmith — June 9, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
I agree with annon that the redesign probably caused this app's popularity. Also it seems like the application directory's popularity view is a self-fulfilling prophecy. It makes the popular apps continue to be popular. I've been told the verification of apps alleviates this. Not sure that is true. What do you guys think?
Comment by Sana N Choudary — July 20, 2009 @ 4:36 pm
I downright hate it. Pretty much the only thing it really does is say 'hey, at least one of your friends will have his/her birthday in the next month' (…), after which you have to navigate through its spiderweb-like structure in order to find out who will blow out the candles on what day. I'm removing it right away, I'll keep track of birthdays myself.
Comment by Joren Brunekreef — July 27, 2009 @ 2:02 am
Yeah, I hate this thing… it’s so spammy…and I didn’t even know my friends were being notified!!!! Surely FB must have some policies about tricking users….on a better note: My friend alpha tested this really sick facebook calendar app coming out on September 1st, but it’s apparantly only for college/uni students. They didn’t say the name but, hopefully we’ll see it, and hopefully it doesn’t go down the spam route and it kills MySpamlendar.
Comment by Jason Beckford — August 9, 2009 @ 2:22 am
Not as popular as MyCalendar, but http://www.fbcal.com does something similar. You can subscribe to your Facebook events and Facebook birthdays right from your calendar application (iCal, Outlook, gCal and even iPhone 3.0). So you will never miss an opportunity to keep in touch with your friends anymore.
If you have any suggestion about the application, do not hesite to tell us about it.
Comment by Frederic Sidler — August 24, 2009 @ 7:16 am
You can't even get past the first screen without spamming your entire friends list with "requests" to add their birthdate to your calendar. Which of course means they have to give the app access to their data, then the cycle starts all over with them. That was an immediate turnoff for me. Aside from what others have stated that it's redundant.
Comment by Eric Stein — December 9, 2011 @ 11:00 am
The reason why it's so popular is that when you accept it, it sends invitations to all your friends itself.
It's a spammy crap collecting a lot of infos like e-mail, visited websites your friends and so on.
Comment by rafael — December 21, 2011 @ 1:31 am