The Genius Of Facebook Apps

If you have a Facebook account, chances are you’ve seen or used an application. They’re everywhere and do everything. Whether you’re playing Jetman or saving the earth with Lil’ Green Patch, Facebook applications have made the internet a little more interesting.

A majority of these application’s traffic/popularity comes from the mere fact that its an arm of Facebook, one of the most visited sites world-wide. But how do they maintain that traffic and reach more people? Well, part of the genius of Facebook apps is their ability to spread themselves.

Every week, I probably get about a dozen invitations from my friends, asking me to join in on some app or another. Usually, the invitations involve whatever the ‘hottest’ app out is, which is currently Snowball Fight. I decline them about 99% of the time. I mean, who wants to throw a virtual snowball?! Yes, it can be amusing, but overall its plain pointless. That said, there are some very useful apps out there, but those tend to not be so popular.

A lot of apps use social tactics, like saying ‘Click here to see what [insert friend name] said about you!’ These lures, I must admit, are quite tempting to click, but they’re easily avoidable. These kinds of apps plague my inbox and sometimes even make me doubt Facebook’s awesomeness. What do you think?