The Top 25 Facebook Applications

I have spent the past few months filtering through thousands of applications to find the best ones. I have added and removed thousands of applications but only a few still remain. After going through all the applications and figuring out which applications I will return to, I have narrowed down the list to the following 25 applications. For organizational purposes I have broken the list into application categories. Games Noggin - This is honestly the most addictive game that I've played on Facebook to date. Noggin is pretty straightforward. There is a 4 by 4 grid of letters and you make as many words as possible by connecting the letters horizontally, vertically and diagonally. You are also playing against other players in real-time which makes this game more exciting. Additionally, there is a chat room that you can chat with other players from. If you are in to word games than go grab the Noggin application. Scrabulous - If you have been on Facebook since the platformed launch and haven't seen this game, you haven't been spending much time on Facebook. Scrabulous has over 380,000 daily visitors and for a good reason. Scrabulous is literally a copycat version of Scrabble that you can play with your friends. The only downside of the game is there is no way to protect against cheating. I played it once and I definitely cheated. If you are a scrabble fan then go check out the Scrabulous application. Attack! - As I reviewed this morning, Attack is a online multiplayer version of the classic game of Risk. Given that I used to be a huge Risk fan, I had to put this in the list. The application developers did an amazing job of providing users with a great experience. From live chat to the ability to see which of your friends are currently playing, this application has most of the bells and whistles that I look for in a game. If you are also a fan of Risk, go grab the Attack application. PacMan - This is the classic pacman game but on Facebook. To be honest, this game isn't special at all except that it is PacMan! The best part is trying to beat your own high score as well as your friends high scores that are also displayed within the game. My high score is 53690. If you want to try and beat it, go grab the PacMan application. Warbook - The Warbook application is the most active role playing application on Facebook with over 100,000 daily visitors. The goal in Warbook is to expand your midevil empire and building an empire. While there aren't as many factors as the classic Warcraft game, there over a hundred thousand people that are battling on a daily basis. If you want to build your own empire, go grab the Warbook application. Mars 2025 - The Mars 2025 application is extremely similar to the Warbook application. Being second to market on Facebook can result in either complete failure or massive success. So far, this application has been relatively successful although their growth rate is nowhere near Warbook's during its prime. Last week I gave this application a positive review. Since then, the application has been growing steadily. If you enjoy empire building and want a greater opportunity to be the game leader (in comparison to Warbook where the leaders are far ahead of the majority of users), go grab the Mars 2025 application. Traveler IQ Challenge - Second to Noggin, this is the most addictive game that I've played so far. The Traveler IQ Challenge application tests your geographical knowledge and displays how you rank in comparison to your friends and all of Facebook. Back when I was playing this game on a regular basis, I seriously contemplated hanging a world map above my desk. I didn't and as a result my score is not the top one among my friends. If you want to test your geographical knowledge, go grab the Traveler IQ Challenge application. Social Good Causes - When I discuss Facebook applications with other people, the Causes application is easily the most referenced application on Facebook. People love the concept that others may be naturally altruistic. This application caters to that idea. Users can create a cause and list a non-profit or political group that will be the beneficiary of donations. While there hasn't been a significant amount of money donated through the application a few select causes have raised a moderate amount of money. If you want to make a change on Facebook, this is one of the best ways, so go grab the Causes application. Razoo Speed Granting - While it hasn't experienced a similar growth as the causes application, the Razoo Speed Granting application is a great opportunity for great causes to raise money. Each month, Razoo gives away anywhere from $300 to $1000. It's a great way for anybody to win some money for great causes. If you want are part of an organization that wants to raise money or if you just want to help out another person's cause, go grab the Razoo Speedgranting application. (Disclaimer: I have done some consulting work for Razoo previously.) Utility Video - A few months ago, Facebook officially launched their video application. The application has rapidly grown to become one of the most active applications on Facebook. Among my contacts, I consistently see new videos being posted. This in turn enriches my interaction with the Facebook site. In terms of time spent on Facebook, this application will single handedly increase Facebook's overall statistics in terms of time spent per user. The only downfall currently is their 100 MB filesize limit but this isn't too restricting for most users. If you want to upload videos or view your friends' videos, go grab the Video application. Flog Blog - Are you a blogger? If you are, this application is a must have. Flog blog imports your RSS feed and displays and appended version of your articles directly on your profile. It's as simple as that. Given that profiles are the best source for getting traffic to applications, you would have to assume that the same would go for click-thru links to websites. So if you have a blog, you have to grab the Flog Blog application. Top Groups - One way to create a popular application is to simply improve upon the features that Facebook has built. That's exactly what the developers of Top Groups have done. Top Groups lets you choose up to 30 of your favorite groups, order them how you like, and save them to a customizable box on your profile. Are you in group overload? Have you joined hundreds of groups resulting in a massive list of them on your profile? Thanks to Top Groups you can narrow down this list to the 30 that are most important to you. If you have a case of group overload, go check out the Top Groups application. Clever Hippo Search Engine - For those of you that have realized that Facebook's application directory search is extremely limited, the Clever Hippo team has come up with a solution for your problems. The Clever Hippo Search Engine application indexes all of the components of an application including the developer names, application title, description and the about page. This is really useful if you are trying to make sure that someone else hasn't already come up with an application idea that you are considering launching. Additionally, if you just want a more effective search utility, go grab the Clever Hippo Search Engine application. Free Conference Calls - Many people have criticized Facebook application for not being useful. They argue that most of the popular applications are for those looking to get involved in childish behavior. Thanks to Free Conference Calls, even business people can take advantage of Facebook. The application has become increasingly popular. One of the coolest features is the ability to have free party lines. While I've never been a fan of party lines, this application is being used to coordinate events for organizations that have a disconnected member base as well as for business calls. If you are ever in need of launching conference calls, go grab the Free Conference Calls application. Music Audibie - A while back, Facebook decided to shut down the highly popular Audio application. The application had added over 750,000 users. At the end of August Audibie, a cleaned up version of Audio, launched and has yet to draw much attention, commanding just over 3,000 active users a day. This pales in comparison to the Audio application, probably why it has yet to be shut down. The slower growth of this application shows how launching a highly viral application has grown much more challenging as the platform matures. Regardless, as long as this application remains, it is a great tool for adding music to your profile. If you want to add just about any song to your profile, go grab the Audibie application. My Music - Want to listen to your iTunes library from anywhere in the world? The My Music application does just that. You can track all of the music you and your friends have listened to as well as listen to any of your songs from anywhere in the world. My Music does a great job of producing a weekly chart. The most interesting thing is that the charts are extremely unique in comparison to billboard or even Last.fm. If you want to listen to you music from anywhere or just see what your friends are listening to, go grab the My Music application. Yahoo! Music Videos - Soon after the launch of the Facebook platform, Yahoo decided to create an application that transported over their music video website. While the application has yet to become extremely popular, it is well made an has a relatively large library of music videos. While there is little interactivity among users within the application, I enjoyed watching the videos. While it's an extremely simple application, it does a good job at doing what it sayd it will. If you want to watch music videos on Facebook than go grab the Yahoo Music Videos application. Fantasy Games Fantasy Record Label - Earlier this month I reviewed a new application that Amie St launched. The application enables users to pick artists from Amie St that they think are going to do well. Over time you can watch your label grow in popularity or fail miserably. I've found that most of the songs in this application tend to rise in popularity but some increase more than others. While I may not be the best on Facebook at sensing talent, the application is still entertaining. If you want to test your skills at running your own music label, go grab the Fantasy Record Label application. Fantasy Stock Exchange - Are you a stock picking wizard? Probably not, but most people that trade stocks like to think they are. If you think you can compete against the best, this application is for you. The only problem with fantasy games is that you have to return to the application on a regular basis. If you will return to an extremely pleasant surprise or more than likely return to a disaster area. Whatever the circumstance, if you enjoy testing your stock picking skills this is a great environment to test it in. If you want to prove you're the master stock picker, go grab the Fantasy Stock Exchange application. Ratings Visual Bookshelf - Want to keep track of all of the books that you want to read or have read? Visual Bookshelf provides you with an easy and intuitive way for managing your virtual bookshelf. You can also comment on books and view what books your friends are reading as well. Visual Bookshelf has an extremely active user base of passionate readers. If you are into reading then go check out the Visual Bookshelf application. Movies - Over 700,000 people per day are using the Flixster Movies application on Facebook. This application is probably one of the most robust and dynamic community applications on Facebook enabling users to talk about their experiences with everything related to movies. You can rate movies, comment on movies, view trailers, take quizzes, find movie times and more! If you are a movie connoisseur check out the Movies application. Visualization TouchGraph Photos - The TouchGraph Photos application has to be one of the most visually appealing applications. TouchGraph enables you to view how all of your friends are related in an interactive environment. When you click on each of your friends you can view each of their photos and then narrow down those photos to ones that just include you and the friend. I posted a video of this application back in June. If you want an awesome way to visualize all of your friends' photos on Facebook, go grab the TouchGraph photos application. Friends Density -The Friends Density application provides you with an insanely simple way to visualize your friends in terms of their geographic location. A heatmap overlays your country (U.S., U.K. or France currently) and displays where your friends are on the map. Rather than browsing through all of your friends' profiles you can simply load this map and get a quick image that accurately depicts where all of your friends are from. If you want to see your socio-geographical (made up that word) impact, go grab the Friends Density application. Dating Hot or Not - If you don't know what Hot or Not is, chances are good that you don't spend much time on the web. Hot or Not enables you to click through peoples' photos and choose whether they are hot or not. You rate each person on a scale of 1 to 10. After each vote you can tell what other people ranked that person. Hot or Not continues to be one of the most popular applications on Facebook with close to 140,000 active daily users. One cool feature about this is the matching component which enables you to click if "Yes" if you are interested in someone. They will then receive a notification updating that you clicked "Yes" to them. While it is extremely basic, my bet is that a number of matches have been made thanks to this application. If you want to judge other peoples' looks, go grab the Hot or Not application. Are You Interested? - The Are You Interested application is extremely similar to the Hot or Not application except that it tracks all of your responses and makes them visible to you. The application is extremely simple yet extremely popular. After tracking all of the clicks, the application creators launched another application that tracks the people with the highest scores. It's not surprising who ranked at the top but if you want to see some pretty faces (and bodies) you can check out the accompanying "Meet New People" application. If you want to see if other people on Facebook are interested in you, check out the Are You Interested application.

Social Pro Daily

The Top 25 Facebook Applications

Nick O'Neill

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Nick O'Neill