Image: View a screenshot from my Facebook profile
At one time, I added many apps to experiment, but I’ll have to admit, very few I use on a regular basis. I often discuss in my presentations that our research indicates that many folks use social networks to check out others profiles.
Apparently, I need to do some housecleaning as, my kid sister wrote this on my Facebook Wall this morning: “hello big brother!! your facebook profile is a JUNKYARD!”. She’s also the little darling who told me that “I only use email to get a hold of old people like you“.
Sigh, kids. As my former boss Kevin Eves used to tell me, “so it goes”.
Jeremiah,
I cant stop laughing at the junkyard analogy. I talked about how many facebook apps were of the “use it once and forget it variety”. They all ended up on your profile and now as your kid sister says it looks like a junkyard.
Chck out the post I wrote last week regarding these 1 dimensional apps. The image that I chose to use is a junkyard/dump. 😉
Cheers and happy spring cleaning!
Rodney Rumford
http://facereviews.com/2008/02/25/facebook-dumps-myspace-type-profile-applications
Thanks Rodney, funny image you’ve got there on your blog
Is there an app where it serves up friends walls on a widget that you can display on your own profile by different categories such as ‘networks’, or least communicated with etc. It would be cool so you could stay on your profile and be writing on walls without having to figure out which person to communicate with. It kind of takes away the ‘art of friendship’ but can make it more efficient to keep in touch with those you know.
the junkyard analogy is really great, but the screenshot of your facebook profil is incredible. How long does it take to load your profile page ? 🙂
I really don’t like how you have to add an app to your page to demo it.
I have minimized all my apps to make my page look clean. Most addicting apps on my page that waste lots of time if you get sucked in:
iLike music challenge – name that tune.
Reverb Nation – Who Digs it? It presents you with 3 icons and you have to guess which person dugg the track you are being played. A good exercise in judgment.
Dopewars – absolutely no value to wasting time on this app… But I do have a cartel and am worth $5M. I stayed up all night playing this one night. I was addicted to dope wars when I was a teen.
Scrabulous – I thought I was good at Scrabble. My father schooled me in Scrabble as a kid. Then I played some of these people.
lol Your sister is funny and kinda right 😉
I keep my apps to a minimum, mainly because I like the simplistic design of Facebook and keep my profile looking the same.
I try out the apps then delete the ones that I don’t continuously use – or use them in the ‘background’ and don’t show the app box on my profile.
I’ve lost it for facebook. 🙁 so much spam, and for some reason so many apps are added to my profile WITHOUT my consent. I look on my profile page and it says “Chris has added XYZ app”…and I think to myself…no i havent!
Something needs to happen here. I’ve talked with several different types of users (highschool, college, and work)…all agree this “junk” is getting in the way of Facebook.
The timing of your post is interesting. Earlier today I was thinking that the new Facebook profile design could result in a massive purge of apps — a wave of millions and millions of opt-outs.
On the other hand, a la your JUNKYARD theme, some might see those shiny new “tab” pages as giant storage bins for stowing all thier unused stuff.
Have you thought about what all those apps conveys about your identity, who you are as a person? and what effect a sudden clean up might have on perceptions about you and what you care about?
Jeremiah — The Junkyard analogy is interesting. I’d also place that junkyard on the outskirts of town a little bit… because Facebook for me is increasingly being a place I stop in every once in a while, but don’t really hang out. Good post!
As an application developer it is interesting to see how the Facebook application surge has resulted in so many truly useless applications. The applications we strove to create were the opposite: full-featured, engaging, and configurable. But we found it more difficult for these applications to spread. Why? It appeared that it was what the average FB user apparently wanted: simple, easy, one-trick click-it-and-forget it apps that spread by invites (forced or otherwise) and newsfeed stories. Attention spans on the web have been decreasing for years and Facebook has nicked at least a couple of seconds off of them – if you don’t have a user’s attention in 4 or 5 seconds your app is dead. So, in fact, we built our own junkyards. Now it seems that Facebook Pages are becoming more relevant. You can. or should be, able to interact with a Page as a fan without having to clutter your profile with another facebook app. Companies are just starting to see this and I think we are on the verge of seeing some really wonderful content without the clutter…
HAHA! I’m glad I could be of an amusement to your networking buddies! 🙂 But seriously, take down some applications! I cringe at the sight of your profile. You have so much stuff on there, it took me like 2 minutes to find your wall!
Hehee–ouch, I have a feeling mine would get the same review. At least I took down my Christmas tree…
It seems not so much like a junkyard on facebook but more a pimply face if you excuse the lame pun. Time for getting a facial!
Hey Jeremiah, sorry to hear you’ve got a little “Sanford & Sons” going on (that’s bringing it back, no?!). I’m not opposed to the insane amount of FB application invites. But what I find shocking are the invites from people who clearly did a mass send to everyone in their network and didn’t uncheck those of us who are mere business acquaintances when they asked for those Dracula bites…sort of the last thing I was really hoping for…can I just sign up for the business lunch option?! Also, I wish there were a gentle decline option instead of just “Join” and “Ignore.” For example, for the person I do really respect and truly like but don’t want to offend, I’d like to say something like “Love you, love the concept, but not adding any more apps!” 😉 Whaddaya think…could it be time for a fill-in field for that reply?!
I will admit, I do have a soft spot for iLike music (can dedicate a song to someone and discover new bands contacts are into) and Where I’ve Been (can compare your ‘where I want to go’ lists with close friends). And I cannot deny that I read and view SO many more fascinating articles and videos posted by a lot of smarty-pants journalist, analyst and obscenely well-informed friends. And I also have the chance to share some winner ones myself through the Posted Items application.