10 Must-Have Facebook Apps and Add-Ons
Posted August 11th, 2011
Chances are, you’re one of Facebook’s more than 750 million active users. With the site constantly growing and changing, it can be hard to keep up with what it can offer you. Are you a music or movie-buff? Are you still waiting for an official “Dislike” button, or do you spend time trying to identify connections who have “unfriended” you? To get more out of your Facebook time, download these 10 must-have Facebook apps and add-ons.
3D Status Analyzer
How positive or negative are your Facebook status updates? Which words do you use most often? This app gives you a peek into your Facebook persona by analyzing your posts and organizing the most frequently used words into a rotating globe that you can navigate with your cursor.
Music by iLike
With the Music by iLike app, music lovers can add music, create and share playlists, discover new music and browse charts. Music by iLike also lets you list concerts you’ve attended, browse concerts based on location or day, and connect with others who are also attending.
Add Facebook Symbols
Feeling particularly emo? Whimsical? Artsy? FacebookSymbols.com provides everything you could possibly want to copy and paste to a status update or friend’s wall. Browse their array of symbols, smileys, emoticons, wall art and more. Use them sparingly, though, or you risk being unfriended.
Unfriend Finder
Ever wonder if you’ve been dropped by a Facebook friend? With the Unfriend Finder script, every time you log in, the tool checks to see if someone is missing from your friend list. When the script detects someone is no longer your friend, you get a notification telling you whether you removed them or they removed you, whether they’re still on Facebook or if they deactivated their account.
Add a “Dislike” Button
While Facebook hasn’t officially added the much-desired “Dislike” button, you can add your own to your status updates with the Magic Updates app. It lets you customize an action button—such as “Dislike,” “Hate” or “Love”—and adds it to your update once you click “Share.”
Flixster
If you’re a movie buff, the Flixster app is a must-have. Discuss movies you’ve seen with your Facebook friends, keep up-to-date on new releases in theaters and on DVD, and rate the movies you’ve already seen. You can also build a list of movies you want to see and use the app to take movie trivia quizzes, then challenge your friends to beat your score.
Type Upside Down
Keep your Facebook status updates interesting by posting them upside down. Visit TypeUpsideDown.com, type the text of your status update and below, the inverted text will appear in a box. Copy and paste this into your Facebook status box. This app also works with Twitter, YouTube, Gchat and other messaging services.
“Purify” Your Facebook News Feed
Facebook Purity is a browser extension compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera that helps you control the noise on your Facebook news feed. Some of the filters include answers to Facebook Questions, application spam such as quizzes and games, and messages such as “John became a fan of XYZ” or “Jane is now friends with Joe and Julie.”
Edit Photos in Facebook
Before you upload last week’s vacation photos, check out the Facebook Picnik app, a comprehensive photo editor. Among its many features are the standards—cropping, resizing, adjusting exposure and color, sharpening, eliminating red-eye—as well as “effect” tools, fonts and stamps.
Sync Your Address Book
AddressBookSync helps to get your contacts organized. This Mac OS X application transfers Facebook profile pictures and birthday information to your Mac Address book and iCal (there’s a version for Outlook users, too). If your mobile phone supports synchronization with Address Book, when a contact calls, the person’s picture will appear. Similarly, contacts’ birthdays will synch with your iCal, keeping you updated when you’re not logged in to Facebook.
