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Top 10 Facebook Apps: Media

Written by Josh Catone / July 18, 2007 10:24 AM / 12 Comments

In part 3 of my top 10 Facebook applications series, I will be looking at the top 10 apps that have to do with media. For the most part, these are apps that let users watch, display, look at, and remix video, audio, and photo content. This is a completely subjective list, so not everyone will agree with our picks and I encourage you to debate them in the comments.

This post is the third in a 5-part series that will identify the top 50 Facebook apps (10 each in 5 categories). Be sure to check out Part 1: Work and Part 2: Play, as well.

Video

Video is an official app from Facebook that allows users to upload videos, post videos directly from mobile phones, or record them from web cams. These videos are pretty high quality, can be posted to your profile or friends' Walls, or sent via the insite messaging system. One of the more interesting features is per-video permission that let you decide on a video-to-video basis who sees each clip.


iLike

iLike is the third most popular application on Facebook (a fact that Mike Arrington wrote about yesterday). It's easy to see why the iLike app is well-liked by Facebook users. It lets you add music and music videos directly to your profile, as well as find concerts and concert attendees in your area. Though audio from some of the major label artists songs appears only as 30 second clips, iLike offers hundreds of thousands of full songs and it's all legal.


Art

There are two apps on Facebook called 'Art,' but this one by Matt Kraft and Phil Edwards is already bringing a little more class to the profiles of about 30,000 users. Choosing from over 160,000 classic works of art, users can use this fun little app to create their own custom galleries in their profiles to show off their tastes and share some culture with their friends. Users can annotate their galleries with their own notes and demonstrate their art history knowledge.


Audio

We already looked at the Facebook Video app, so here comes the Audio application. This one wasn't created by Facebook, but instead by a member of the faculty at Stanford University. However, because of its simplicity, more than 700,000 users utilize Audio to find, share, and play MP3 music files.



Shoebox

Shoebox is something like a social bookmarking app for Facebook, but its key feature is its support for media like photos and videos. Shoebox, which is the Facebook version of Plum, lets users clip webpages, save photos and videos, and share them with friends and other Facebook users. Users can sort saved items by tags.

Splashcast

The Splashcast app on Facebook allows users to remix photos, videos, audio and documents or use feeds from YouTube, Flickr or any RSS source to create multimedia slideshows. You can use these slideshows to create a multimedia channel that displays your favorite media with your own comments and annotations. Creation is done via Splashcast's easy-to-use flash editor completey from within Facebook.


Last.fm

Last.fm was kind of slow to jump on the Facebook platform bandwagon, so there are a bunch of Last.fm apps created by fans, but only one of them is the official application. Last.fm's app lets Facebook users share their favorite music in the form of a playlist of full length tracks. With "Buy Album" apps integrated directly on each playlist item, Last.fm is one of the few apps on Facebook that is currently subtly monetizing.


Fliptrack

Fliptrack is a cool little Facebook app that members can use to create music videos out of their friends' uploaded photos and videos. Add music (from a library), text, and effects and then share the completed videos on your profile.



Timeline

Timeline is a twist on the standard photo slideshow that lets you display photos in a playable timeline. Timeline automatically fills out information from your life (your date of birth, where and when you went to school, work history, etc.) that it learns from your profile. Adding events is easy. One thing that is lacking is that it appears you can only use photos from your own albums, but it would be great to be able to use photos from friends' albums as well.


GridView

GridView is a very simple app that displays the profile pictures of your friends in a mosaic embeds it on your own profile. GridView isn't the most practical app, but it is a pretty neat way to visualize your friends and turn their photos into a piece of profile art.



Conclusion

Those are the top 10 Facebook applications that for media. Which apps did we skip that you think should be in the top 10? Which apps shouldn't be on our list? Please let us know in the comments. And be sure to check back in tomorrow for part 4 of our list. Let the debate begin!


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  1. I like uPlayMe better than iLike... especially if you play around with it outside of Facebook too. Way more social and lets you actually meet new people, other then the ones you are already friends with on FB.

    Posted by: Melissa | July 18, 2007 11:28 AM



  2. Thanks for including us Josh. SplashCast also makes custom Facebook apps like the Rocketboom app and Miller.tv app for Rep. George Miller in CA.

    One other media app we like a lot around the office here is the Picnik photo editor. It's awesome.

    Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick | July 18, 2007 12:07 PM



  3. I guess the "Share this on FaceBook" is still taking off. It looks like its getting on digg (at the link I put)

    Posted by: Matt Jones | July 18, 2007 12:11 PM



  4. Last.fm Plus is my favorite Facebook app for music.

    It looks really good and you can set it up to sync your iTunes/iPod/iPhone playing to Facebook.

    http://internetducttape.com/2007/06/29/sync-ipod-itunes-to-facebook-and-lastfm/

    Posted by: engtech @ internet duct tape | July 18, 2007 12:23 PM



  5. Here's what I want to know: where the heck is Pandora? It seems that they've got all the makings for a great Facebook app, but I haven't seen anything from them yet.

    Posted by: Chris | July 18, 2007 1:34 PM



  6. Awesome list, Josh - looking forward to seeing the next 7 :)

    We've also started a Facebook app review site at AppRate.com. Head on over and let us know whet you think...

    Posted by: mersh | July 18, 2007 4:05 PM



  7. Nice list Josh, from a telecoms perspective on facebook
    I like the new Jangl app- phonebook
    SkypeMe
    Jaiku
    Twitter
    I am also starting to use the Meebo facebook app as an IM tool

    I have heard that Jaxtr is also available but cant seem to find it

    Posted by: Pat Phelan | July 18, 2007 4:18 PM



  8. I really like Uber.com music player... It's skinnable!! plus it allows you to do song links like the music app does. Not in the Facebook top ten for media, but in the top 10 for Music.

    Posted by: Jamie | July 18, 2007 6:13 PM



  9. Perhaps a little biased but I like VideoBox (since I made it!), it allows you to post videos on your profile from many popular video sharing websites such as YouTube, Google, Yahoo, MySpace etc.

    http://apps.facebook.com/videbox/

    Posted by: Craig Bovis | July 19, 2007 1:42 AM



  10. Oops that should be,

    http://apps.facebook.com/videobox/ !!

    Posted by: Craig Bovis | July 19, 2007 1:44 AM



  11. Try kyte on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=2428876514

    Here's a review of what kyte has to offer: http://facereviews.com/2007/06/15/kyte-on-facebook-multi-media-channel-for-your-facebook-profile/

    Also, kyte offers full mobile functionality. Be connected in real-time from your mobile phone with your facebook profile, your buddies, etc.

    Posted by: Daniel Graf | July 22, 2007 12:33 PM



  12. Here's one that provides a lot of functionality that's actually useful! http://apps.facebook.com/thenewsroom

    Posted by: Ian from www.thenewsroom.com | August 4, 2007 8:46 AM




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