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.

Both apps are constructed out of RSS feeds, and enable you to place headlines and blurbs from our most recent blog post and news stories onto your Facebook page. Typically, on one's Facebook home page these live on the left side under "Applications." They're more accessible on one's Facebook profile page, where they appear right smack within the middle column of the page. (Of course, as my teenage daughter assures me, there are many more ways to manipulate Facebook pages than I'm currently familiar with. Which is a nice way of saying, you can probably place these feeds anywhere you want.

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 [email protected].

Oh, yeah, and if you need those links again, they're the InformationWeek Blog Update and the InformationWeek News Update.

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