Introducing FB Review, Facereviews.com’s very own facebook application
8 Comments Published by Michael Vu July 26th, 2007 in Facebook, Facebook Applications, Facebook Review, Facebook Software, facebook widgets.
Rating: 
As my first post here, it’s my pleasure to review Facereview.com‘s very own Facebook application, FB Review. In case you’re wondering why the application is called FB Reviews and not Facebook Reviews, someone beat them to the punch in getting the name (plus no applications can have the word “face” in them). This seems to be a more common theme as of late, as if we now have a new responsibility to secure our respective names within these social networks. So for all you thinking about developing an application on Facebook, go lockup your name and URL for your application (ex: apps.facebook.com/fbreview ) ASAP. People are “sniping,” names, so to speak, as there aren’t any cybersquatting-like laws that govern Facebook, or any social application for that matter.
Developed by Techlightenment, (with guidance from our publisher/consultant Rodney Rumford) a consulting firm focused purely on Facebook projects, the purpose of this application is for users to get the latest news about Facebook applications and also help them find out what the most useful applications are. The current Facebook implementation for browsing through apps is one dimensional, only focusing on apps that have the most users and not necessarily focusing on the most useful ones. In effect, the adoption of various applications is somewhat of a popularity contest. As long as the applications are able to penetrate those Facebook users with a lot of friends, it has a good shot of gaining a lot of traction.
As a result, Facebook screams for a user reviews system to go along with its popularity system, and FB Reviews is the first to take upon that challenge. While this application does not allow users to directly rate apps, it pulls content from Facereviews.com and displays it as a canvas page and also in a block displayed in the user profile. The available canvas pages are for the latest posts and for a list of applications that have been reviewed. The application links to the Facebook Applications Group, which is also ran by Facereviews.com and is currently the biggest group for this purpose with 657 members. With Robert Scoble aboard as officer, this is THE group to be part of if you are even remotely interested in leveraging the Facebook platform.
As the Facebook Platform continues to thrive, it will only get harder and harder to sift through all the applications. It is going to take an application like FB Reviews in order to help those useful apps get the exposure and opportunity that they need in a sea of trendy apps. However, this application is in a very early state and doesn’t quite reflect its full potential. Some features I’d like to see include user ratings, a more extensive applications list, and less obtrusive ads on the canvas.
Because of its early state, I only gave this application a 3 out of 5 stars. However, it is definitely one to keep a close watch on because it’s in position to catalyze the entire Facebook platform – and that is a beautiful thing. Check out the application at: http://apps.facebook.com/fbreview .
Check out the canvas home page:
…and check out the user profile block here:
Check out the application list page:
Technorati Tags: facebook, facebook reviews, facebook widget, facebook application, facebook blog, Rodney Rumford
I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Michael Vu to the FaceReviews.com team. Michael is a very bright individual with a true passion and deep knowledge of new media, web2.0, social networking, technology and software… and more specifically facebook.
I love his honesty, candor and insights and I hope our readers do as well. You know he is honest when he did not even give our own facebook application 5 stars.
I told him to write the review and publish it… all the while; I crossed my fingers. Now I know how other developers must feel when We review their facebook applications.
Welcome Aboard Michael!
Good to see you on here Mike!
Keep up the great work.
Thank you for the kind words Rodney, I am happy to be part of the team.
To the Facebook world, bring on those apps!
I have added the application to my facebook page, and it definitely gives me insight as to what applications are actually useful. I currently dislike browsing through all the applications to find something interesting, and I do like the reviews on facereviews.com — they are insightful and well written.
However, it still reminds me of an RSS newsfeed, and I think steps towards making it more user interactive would be great. For starters, I’d like to be able to select which reviews I want reflected on my page, because I want them to be relevant to me. ( if that is an option, I don’t see it.)
Nevertheless, this application is definitely taking strides in the right direction, and I hope to see more development come out of this!
The application is a definitely positive supplement to facereviews.com. More and more apps are resurfacing and I would like to filter through to those that are applicable to me. The reviews will assist in my decision on whether or not I should give an application a try. This brings me to thank facereviews for bringing on authors that are passionate and knowledgeable about the subject.
Keep up the great work!
Very well said Michael. I will be adding Facereviews application to give me further insight on the latest news and most useful applications.
Keep up the great work!
mind this small error:
Top Headlines from FaceReviews
Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /home/facerevi/public_html/facereviewapp/index.php on line 21
Benoit. Yea. We had a small bug in our code that was causing this. Adjustments were made and all is working fine again.