Rating:
The My Solar System Facebook application allows you to create a really nice looking piece of a virtual solar system with lots of cool looking aliens, UFO’s, and creatures. Start your own virtual solar system! Send aliens, rockets and even planets to your friends for free (sort of). Let them send items to you as well. Put your virtual solar system on your profile page for everyone to see. The animation and graphics in this application is top notch.

The ease of use for adding creatures to your “planet” is very intuitive and easy to use. They give you 250 Coins to “buy” creatures to add to your canvas or to send to your friends. You can also leave a note along with the gift that you send to your friends. Nice, viral and fun. The creatures have a “Shelf Life” and expire after anywhere from 4-10 days. This means you need more coins to put them on your planet or put them on your friend’s planet. You get 150 points per day automatically. This is enough to send 1 expensive UFO or 2 cheap creatures. Pretty soon you have no creatures on your planet when they die off after a few days.

But nothing on this planet is free… In order to keep using the game (which is very fun), I can do some things to get more coins. I am taken to a page with all my options for how I can get more coins: fill out one of those sleazy “survey” forms and end up on every Spam list on the planet. I also have the nice option of downloading a “Toolbar”. I can only imagine what comes loaded on that thing: Adware? Spyware, etc.?… And several other undesirable options like filling out a complicated survey. Download or participate at your own risk.

In a move of pure genius marketing; once I navigate to the “Get More Coins” page; there is no way to get back to the application except by using your arrow back in your browser. Dead-end me into my choice of giving away valuable information. No Thanks. The navigation on this application is clunky; I truly suspect this is by design.

If you do take one of the actions and give away your valuable information or download a toolbar, it takes up to 2 hours while they “manually” add your coins. How is this going to scale? What is your recourse once they have your information? I don’t have a warm fuzzy feeling here. UPDATE: More than 24 hours have past and no sign of the supposed 150 free coins that I am supposed to get every day. The weasel meter just went up a notch.

This application is so darn heavy handed in its lead generation inclination that it turns my stomach. I am sure it will do well, due to it’s addictive quality, viral nature and high design appeal. The builders of this application will most likely make a fortune on lead generation. This is one model of advertising that we are going to see repeated on facebook apps.

To quote a user of the app: “This signing up with polls or magazines or movies is way too complicated… stop sucking all of the fun out of them!”

One additional item that concerned me: the email from facebook looks different than any other email I have ever seen. It is from the same facebook email address that all my other emails appear to be from, BUT… it is from MY SOLAR SYSTEM. I am not sure why it looks like this. This is not a standard notification. I have added and deleted hundred of apps and never seen anything like this before.

First page you see when you start application

My Planet on my profile page. Impressive graphics with animation. BLING!


Your choice of creatures and ships to send to friends or put on your own profile. Just drag and drop them. Nice.


Out of Coins… Time to go…

Your choice of questionable actions that you can take to get more coins.

Action option: Get that Toolbar and subject yourself to god only knows what.

Another action option: Get sucked into this kind of garbage that you will regret.

Technorati Tags: facebook, facebook ads, facebook advertising, my solar system

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