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Using Facebook Applications

This chapter explores how to find applications and change your Facebook experience through using applications.

Although you might not notice it, you already use Facebook applications. When you upload a video, you use the Video application. When you create an event, you use yet another application. Facebook has developed a set of built-in applications that we, as Facebook users, take for granted, such as Video, Photos, and Groups, to name a few.

People who create applications are constantly developing, improving, and publishing Facebook applications. Their purposes range from serious and utility based to light-hearted entertainment such as the Pillow Fight application. You can browse through these and other applications on the Application Directory page as described in another section.

Although there are currently several hundred thousand active applications on Facebook, they all have a standard set of features at the time of this writing which is in early 2011. They all have pages so you can get more information, read and post reviews, and contact the developer. You must grant permission to any application before it interacts with your Facebook account. You can see and restrict the information the application uses and may share with your friends. This is described in more detail in Chapter 6, “Safeguarding Your Information on Facebook.” Finally, you can block or completely remove any unwanted applications or those that have become ‘spammy.’

Finding an Application

There are several ways to find an application. Here are three ways:

• Search for it—You can look for an application in Facebook Search at the top of every page. This is probably the fastest way if you know the application name and how to use Facebook Search.

• Through your friends—You might get an application request from a friend who’s already using it or see it in use on their profile or News Feed. For example, if your friend has joined a nonprofit cause, they may send you an invite to use the Causes applications to see if you’re joining the cause with them.

• Browse the Application Directory—You can also find all active and experimental applications on Facebook on the Application Directory page. Facebook uses filters to locate applications similar to filtering on News Feed. Applications are filtered or organized into categories based on use such as Just for Fun.

Responding to a Friend’s Application Request

When your friends use an application they want to share with you or have you participate with them in, you get an application request. Although there are several ways an application presents the request, the basic choices are for you to accept, find out more about the application, or hide the request from your profile.

You’ll find applications requests by selecting App Requests under your profile picture on your profile page. If you want to learn more about the application before making a response, visit the application’s page. You do this by clicking on the application’s name (see Figure 13.1). An application’s page is described in more detail later in the chapter.

If you’ve made a decision about the request, you can agree to install the application by selecting Accept or hide the request by selecting ‘X’ (see Figure 13.1).

If you get spammed with application invites from a friend, you can block their requests. You can find this choice under Account, Privacy Settings, Edit Your Lists (under Block Lists). To read more about this, see Chapter 6.

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