Applications flood Facebook

By Kathleen Grohman

There are currently 16,490 Facebook profile applications.

If you have found yourself struggling through a paper that is due the next day but are totally distracted as you scroll through the profile of some kid that you haven't talked to in three years, only to take a test to find out which Disney princess you are, you have been sucked into the Facebook application vortex.

Facebook, founded by Mark Zuckerberg in 2004, has revolutionized socializing on the Web. Recently, the application feature has provoked a variety of responses from Santa Clara students.

This introduction of applications, called the "Facebook Platform," allows anyone to create new applications using guidelines outlined on the Facebook page.

Some of the most popular applications are "Bumper Stickers," "Graffiti," "I am a fan of...," "Likeness" and "Happy Hour." Many applications are designed to answer a single question. For example, "How good of a kisser are you?," "What mental disease do you have?" and "What color is your heart?" Among students in the Greek system, "Greek Family Tree" is also popular.

* Where do they come from?

Creating an application is free. Application developers make money on their applications by charging people for installing the application or for any advertising revenue their applications generate. But for the most part, applications are free for users to add to their profiles.

This opportunity for anyone to develop has significant implications for the business and tech world. Whenever someone installs an application, it pops up in the News Feeds of the friends of that person, exposing the application to other people that may be interested in installing.

This is the beauty of Facebook's virtual word-of-mouth. If a developer creates a cutting-edge application that everyone wants, Facebook provides the medium to share that application with a tremendous amount of users.

Senior economics and OMIS major Ryan Romanchuk works for a company called Dipity that creates Facebook applications based on timelines. The timeline applications use the events users and their friends went to, photos they viewed and other things they did on Facebook and puts them into a timeline.

According to Romanchuk, there is a big race going on in the application developing world because there is a lot of money to be made in applications.

"The more valuable apps are the apps that drive interaction. The more people are interacting with the app, the more they will see the ad, and that is how money is made in the long run," he said.

Because Facebook is such a recent invention, the changes Facebook has made only make the prospects more promising for the future. Romanchuk explained what he sees as the future vision for Facebook: "Instead of going to Microsoft Word, you could go to Facebook and use an application to type your paper."

* How do students feel?

But as Facebook goes through another transitional phase, all most students see are the new icons and applications popping up in their friends' profiles, and they are responding strongly.

Junior Kate Deeny, who uses the "Bumper Stickers," "Let's Drink" and "My iTunes" applications, doesn't really mind them.

"I don't really look at other peoples' applications, so I don't see the clutter as much," she said.

Senior Evan Sarkisian uses the "Page Editor" and "I'm a Warriors Fan" applications, but said that he doesn't like a lot of applications because it makes it look like MySpace.

"I sort of wish it had been more organized by Facebook instead of being crazy over-sourced," he said.

Sarkisian also said that he is disappointed that you have to sign up for the same applications as your friends in order to use them. According to Sarkisian, "One of the great things about Facebook is that you can interface with people without having to sign up for anything."

"It just complicates everything," said junior Allie Barr, who created a Facebook account to keep in touch with friends. "I don't like scrolling through people's profiles and seeing like 500 applications and not being able to use it for what I got it for in the first place," she said.

Sophomore and The Santa Clara photographer Josh Fedder enjoys certain applications like "Harry Potter Magic Spells," which allows people to cast spells on their friends. He said that, generally, applications are "kinda lame -- except for 'Jetman.' "

Romanchuk recognizes that many students are not particularly thrilled with Facebook applications at the moment.

"Right now there is a lot of negative connotation because a lot of apps are stupid and annoying. Facebook is working towards more robust and complex apps," he said.

* What are the implications?

Some students are concerned about the privacy issues surrounding applications that they feel threaten the anonymity of looking at others' profiles. Applications like "I was Here" claim to allow someone to see who is visiting their profile, but the creator makes it clear on the application home page that it will not allow users to view who visited their profiles because that is against the Facebook privacy policy.

Facebook makes sure to give users the ability to control and maintain their privacy. Nevertheless, one of the discussion board topics on the "I was Here" application site is "I was Freaked," with people posting about how the application freaked them out until they found out it wasn't real.

Another application, called "Courses 2.0," gives users a grid to insert when they are in class or at work, which some people believe is potentially dangerous because it displays when and where the user will be. But a defender of this application posted on the message board to remind people that users are allowed to control who sees this application and that all applications are optional.

Facebook was unavailable to comment about applications.

Contact Kathleen Grohman at (408) 551-1918 or kgrohman@scu.edu.