Facebook® for Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 16. Ten Great Third-Party Applications

In This Chapter

• Typing Maniac

• Digg

• Carpool by Zimride

• My Diet

Traditionally, Facebook has focused on offering the most general types of functionality that just about anyone would find useful. But, in life, different people have different needs and desires. Students like to know what courses their friends are taking. Athletes sometimes trade exercise tips; some record their workouts. Foodies often swap recipes. Music lovers share new music discoveries; movie buffs rate and review films. In an attempt to be all things to all people, Facebook has empowered the masses to add all the specialized functionality that can transform Facebook from a general social network into a specific, tailored tool for managing one's lifestyle — no matter what that lifestyle consists of. This specialized functionality includes all of the previous examples, tools for students, business people, hobbyists, families, and more. Here's a variety of applications that we think are good examples of what Facebook has to offer.

Typing Maniac

On the surface, measuring the speed of one's typing sounds like something only professional stenographers would want to know. However, Typing Maniac, a game played on Facebook, tests that theory. As words float down the screen, you must type them before they hit the bottom. As you move up the levels, the words get longer and move down the screen faster.

Of course, the part of the game that is most entertaining is that you can track your ...