Facebook 1.0 – Review

Our rating:

By: Facebook

Version #: 1

Date Released: 2008-07-10

Developer:

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Social networking is a stalker’s dream.  If you’re either bored at home or a busybody, then Facebook or one of the equivalent social networking websites is for you.  Keeping that in mind, I once tried to avoid social networking like the plague.

Only recently have I capitulated to the masses and hopped on the Facebook bandwagon.  Due to the fact that I listed my high school and college in my initial profile, I had over 100 friends within the first day.  Then things died down a bit with only the occasion trickle of friend requests.  Shortly after my initial registration, I learned that Facebook provided a free app for the iPhone and iPod Touch and I decided to download it for a little investigation and comparison.

The Facebook application is fairly intuitive and the initial home page is reminiscent of the parent website.  Upon signing in, you’re informed of the most recent declarations your friends have made.  You can then navigate to your notifications page which lets you know of any changes friends have made to your profile or any outstanding friend requests you may have.  Buttons on the upper left and right allow you to update your personal status (a single sentence declaration which could range from the boring to the sublime to the ridiculous) or upload new photos from your iPhone or iTouch.

Obviously, the screen size on the iPhone/iTouch is smaller than your standard monitor so the myriad of functions for Facebook cannot fit on a single screen.  As a result, you might not be aware that the menu under the news feed tab scrolls to the right revealing a plethora of other Facebook functions.  However, anyone with even a modicum of iPhone/iTouch familiarity could probably figure it out.

On the bottom menu, you can view your own profile, see a list of your friends, chat with anybody currently on Facebook and check your Facebook e-mail.  Interestingly, when I started a chat on my iTouch with a friend but then changed my mind and closed the window, the application still listed it as an active conversation.  It’s a minor glitch but in an applications that seems virtually flawless, the issue does stick out somewhat.

I would even go as far as to say that the iPhone Facebook application is superior to using the website.  Granted, the screen space for navigating around is smaller than using a web browser (a problem with every iPhone/iTouch application), however simply the fact that it is a client application and not a website using Web 2.0 technologies makes it a smoother and more pleasing experience.

Because there is so much activity on the home page of Facebook, due to the limited screen size not everything can appear on the iPhone/iTouch equivalent.  However, that is made up for by the stability of the front-end application.  If you are on Facebook and own an iPhone or iPod Touch, then you really can’t do any wrong by installing this application on it.  Someday you’ll be bored somewhere and then, in a flash of insight, you’ll take out your iPhone and start chatting with some Facebook friends.  When you do, you can feel free to thank me for my suggestion.