Ever since Facebook opened itself up and released an API to programmers, there has been a mad rush to take advantage of Facebook platform. Tons of new apps are being added everyday. To those who don’t know - Facebook is a social networking website. Recently it opened itself up to 3rd party developers giving them access to its functionalities. Facebook applications are essentially widgets that can be added to enhance your social networking experience. So far several hundred Facebook applications have been created. Obviously I haven’t tried them all. However, among the ones I have tried my top five Facebook applications (in random order) are :

HotLists : Hotlist is based on the principle that a picture is worth a thousand words. Use icons to display what you like - be it companies or television shows or movies or music or celebrities. I prefer this to using simple text to list out your preferences.

Graffiti : Let your creative juice flow. Instead of just posting simple messages on the wall you can draw them using this application. This can be loads of fun and is a nice way to kill time.

Last.fm Music : Last.fm is a website that tracks what songs you listen to and suggests music based on your music taste. Not only does the last.fm widget display recently played tracks it also allows you to create custom (tag based) radio station. It also displays your top artists for the previous week.

You can also use the Last.fm Plus application. It doesn’t have last.fm radio but provides a lot more options as far as displaying statistics is concerned.

iLike : The popularity achieved by iLike application is nothing short of sensational. At the time of writing iLike application was being used by 2,007,092 users. This shows that people love music and viral marketing works (iLike provides the option to invite your friends). iLike lets you add your favourite music and videos to your profile. Additionally you can see who’s going to what concerts (not so useful for Indians though). Another interesting feature is the iLike quiz. You have to listen to a track and name the artist or song. Like last.fm iLike offers you free music matched to your tastes.

Widgets : Widgetbox is a popular widget gallery that allows you to add widgets to websites. With Widgetbox application you can add any of the thousands of widgets available at widgetbox.com

Facebook is the second most popular social networking website and with the release of Facebook Platform they just cemented their position. They dared to allow 3rd party developers to come in and benefit from it’s huge userbase. Only if more Indian’s used facebook. Due to some strange reasons Indians have love orkut and tagged - both of which are far inferior to Facebook.

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