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InformationWeek Adds First Facebook Apps
You've asked for it; you've been waiting for it. Well, even if that's not true, we've got some new -- and possibly even useful -- apps for all you dedicated Facebook time-wasters out there. Our first two Facebook apps are the InformationWeek Blog Update and the InformationWeek News Update. Note that the links -- did I mention that they're the InformationWeek Blog Update and the InformationWeek News Update ? -- will only work for current Facebook members; if you don't have an account, clicking on the links will get you to a prompt where you can sign up.
One interesting thing about these apps, at least to me, is that I built them myself. I used the tools provided by Dapper. (Make sure you go to dapper.net; dapper.com is a music site.) Dapper explains itself as a site which will enable you to "easily provide new means for people to access your content (such as RSS). You can use Dapper to create feeds, widgets, and APIs with your content and links." I would say it's easy in the sense that one doesn't have to be a programmer to use Dapper's tools. However, they're not trivial, so if you have no computer experience at all beyond being a PC user, you're likely to get stuck. Plus, you don't have to tie your Dapper apps to Facebook. With the two InformationWeek apps I built in my non-spare time, I've only scratched the surface of what you can do with Dapper. But I was highly impressed with what I saw. I should add that my Facebook apps are personal apps, not corporate ones. That's really the point behind both Facebook and Dapper: That you can take great content from anywhere on the Web, slice it and dice it, (even aggregate it), and place it where potentially grateful users can see it. Here are three screen grabs, showing each of the two Dapper-powered apps, as well as how they look on a Facebook page. If you have suggestions for other Facebook apps you'd like to see, please ping me directly at alex@alexwolfe.net.
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