Everyone who uses Facebook will know about Facebook applications, and the majority of Facebook users may recognise or even tried to install certain applications that purported to offer certain, shall we say, intriguing services. Here is our list of applications that many a person claimed they created, but never actually existed.
The Profile Stalker Application – this is the application that claimed it could tell a Facebook user who exactly was viewing their profile the most, i.e. who was stalking you. Of course, third party developers do not have access to this information, and displaying this information would be in violation of Facebook’s privacy conditions, so no application has ever been able to tell anybody who looks at their profile or how often they do so. Most of the applications were scams, and many others just picked several random names from the Facebook user’s friends list and claimed these were the Facebook user’s top stalkers. Untrue, however.
The Facebook Dislike Button – many Facebook users will be aware of the various online campaigns to get Facebook to add a Dislike button to allow users to dislike posts or comments made by other Facebook users. This led to a plethora of applications (and groups) that claimed to “officially” offer the Facebook Dislike button. Of course none ever did since third party applications cannot alter Facebook’s source code and any official adding of the feature would not depend on users installing an application. To this day there are no plans to add such a feature, and no application can include it.
Viewing Private Profiles Application – need we confirm that you cannot install applications that allow you to view otherwise private profiles and information? Apparently we do, since these applications are the most prolific. The only way to view profiles is to become friends with those profiles. There is no other way, short of becoming an exceptional programmer and hacking Facebook. No application can, will or has even been able to view private profiles, so do not even bother, or you’ll find yourself the victim of a rather obvious scam.
See Who Blocked/Deleted You – much like the applications that claim you can see who stalks your profile, it is also against the privacy terms of Facebook to see who blocked or deleted your account. Facebook does not notify you if someone deletes you, so if one day you were friends with someone and could access their profile, and the next day you’re not friends and cannot access their profile, you’ve probably done something to tick the other person off, because you have been “defriended.” You don’t need an application to tell you that, which is just as well, because they can’t anyway.
Change Your Facebook Theme – just like the dislike button, no application can alter Facebook including the theme (or account type, if you fell for the Facebook Gold hoax) so any application claiming it will change your theme or revert you back to an old layout was just lying. If Facebook do decide to change their theme, you won’t have to run a Facebook App to get it.
Also worth a mention are the applications that claim to tell you your first status, display your first picture, or applications that claim to tell you who you have had the most interaction with.
These applications have never existed. If you fell for any of them, then back luck because you were duped. Can you think of any others? Feel free to post them below.
Actually, there are two apps that DO exist:
ReplyDelete1) There is a Facebook friend tracker app: http://apps.facebook.com/wheresthatfriend/
It's more of a WIP application, but it works well enough
2) There is a real Facebook Dislike button, you just need to download it from the direct site. It's an add-on for Firefox or Chrome. Unfortunately, because it's a browser add-on, only people who have it can see the dislikes.
Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/facebook-dislike/
Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/lpekolbadenjphaaapbgdienjjpgbali
@H.C. 118
ReplyDelete1. The friend tracker may very well be an application that is real (we're guessing it takes advantage of the Facebook geo-location technology for the users that choose to use it) - however this is not one of the applications we listed.
2. We're aware of Firefox add-on users can install, but from all accounts it was buggy and not worth the download (since others had to have the add-on installed as well to see the dislike) - additionally, this was not a Facebook application, it was a browser add-on.
We're standing by our list! :)
@ThatsNonsense
ReplyDelete1) Not exactly the purpose of the acronym, but RTFA. Had you actually went to the link, then you would have seen that it shows your friend list and your unfriend/friend history. It is (as I said) still more of a WIP than a finished project, but it does work, and work well.
2) I'm with you for this one, although I personally use the Dislike button and a good chunk of my FB friends do to, so I was under the impression that it was slightly popular enough to deserve a mention in the article.
3) Oddly enough, I just noticed the "Person who you had the most interaction with" app is fake. However, I also use one, and its results seem to be fairly reasonable and in-line with my current top friends.
For seeing which friends drop you, you can use Unfriend Finder for GreaseMonkey (http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/58852). Although it's not a FB app, it works quite well and integrates with FB's GUI nicely.
ReplyDelete@TheSlap - such applications just take a snap shot of your friends list and then compare it at a later date, so see who is missing.
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We're aware of Firefox add-on users can install, but from all accounts it was buggy and not worth the download (since others had to have the add-on installed as well to see the dislike) - additionally, this was not a Facebook application, it was a browser add-on.
ReplyDeleteFacebook Application Developers
A lot of information you have shared in here about facebook applications that never existed. I like your blog and bookmark this for further use. Thanks! :)
ReplyDelete