The New Facebook

Over the past few weeks I've found myself using my new Facebook account much more than I thought I would. With the new addition of Facebook Applications, it has become possible to twitter from within Facebook.

The new FB Twitter application is not perfect by any means. It could do with an 'older' button (like the main Twitter interface) to be able to look back on missed tweets from friends. It could also do with a character counter, as it's so easy to go over the 140 limit.

I do like being able to switch between the Twitter app, my FB profile, and friends' profiles without having to open a new window. To me, the combining of these two applications alone has instantly made Facebook seem like a much more powerful (and addictive) social networking tool.

Quite a few other applications have been added too, including Digg, Widgets, Video and Audio. No doubt there will be many others to follow. On my Facebook Wall today, Chris Brogan wrote "It looks like Facebook is trying to swallow up all the other apps". Perhaps this is indeed the case. Facebook is offering the opportunity for any company, internet service, or software maker to build services for its members. FB founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has recently stated that "We want to make Facebook into something of an operating system so you can run full applications,"

Have you been using any of the new FB applications? If you have, let me know what you think. Do you use Facebook at all? If you haven't tried it yet, perhaps now is the time to give it a go. It does seem to be exploding in popularity at the moment, so you're bound to find people you know. It claims 24 million registered users, and is reportedly adding new users at the rate of 150,000 a day.

You can find me on Facebook under John Johnston, Australia network.