facebook application development

I’m sure many of you have noticed that the “Like” button is now everywhere, on sites and web pages across the web. We reported that over 50,000 people had put it up on their site in the first few days. But die-hard Facebookers like you and I remember the good ‘ol days when “like” was reserved for giving praise to comments and news feed entries on ours and others’ Facebook profiles. That said, I thought I’d look at 5 Facebook situations where you should never click “like”.

1) Bob’s Relationship Status Is Now “Single”

Facebook, by its nature, begs the question of why humans have a need to share information with others.  We have all, as we used the service, broadcast messages out to a larger audience than we’re used to.  Either by posting a presumably funny comment or a longer post about some good news in your life.

We also find it important to keep some of our basic information intact on the site, as Facebook represents our virtual self.  That means breaking up with a longtime girlfriend is no longer the situation it once was.  Whereas the news would trickle out through word of mouth to friends, now the news gets posted on your wall, and is available for everyone to see.  Surely, some users forget to ‘remove’ it, even when they don’t want to broadcast it, and it’s left there on a person’s wall as an awkward, painful reminder of their recent emotional turmoil.

Don’t click like on that post.

2) Your Own Post

It is pretty lame to like your own post.  It just looks funny, and is pretty embarassing when it’s just you that has liked the post.  Well, now that I think about it, if you really feel like showing everyone that your funny comment is worth even more than the time you so obviously put into writing it, then click like on your own hilarious joke.  In this situation, the joke itself becomes less important, as the real joke becomes how you’ve demonstrated yourself to be at a level of insecurity so high that you’re now reaffirming yourself on Facebook.

Yeah, so unless you’re a level three joker whose friends understand your self-liking as an act of parody, don’t like your own posts!

3) Farmville Anything

The last thing we need is an army of people liking random Farmville posts for free cows and barn doors.  As if there isn’t enough Farmville going around, for some reason this new generation of gamers has become so obsessed with the game that they feel the need to just quickly tap ‘like’ on any Farmville post they see.  What magic sauce did Zynga put into this friggin’ game?  It’s not even a new concept.  When I see the amount of fandom this game gets, I’m always blown away, so I’m here to say a few things.  You already play the game, you already pay Zynga for virtual pig troughs… You don’t need to click like on other people’s Farmville news feed items!

Just joking Zynga!

4) Friend Request Acceptances

If your high school friend just made friends with one of your elementary school friends, and you’re living 2,000 miles away and haven’t talked to either in years, refrain from being overcome with a sudden blast of nostalgia or you’ll end up “liking” their new friendship.  And in your rose-colored haze you might miss the fact that you liking that relationship is as creepy as Jack Nicholson popping his head into a smashed up door in the shining.  That’s what it will feel like to them, because you just popped your presence into a situation where you are effectively very creepy.  I think Facebook is a place where people can easily become creepy and have no idea, so keep this in mind next time you “like” a random post.

5) Rest In Peace Comments

I’ve found that some people also find peace in letting the world know about their deceased friends or relatives.  I can understand that this helps people pay homage to a person they had respect for, and I respect that as well.

However, the nature of the “like” button means that it’s just not an option to show your own respect to them using the button.  I’ve seen many Rest In Peace comments, and not a single person has clicked “like” yet, so it seems that we all understand that button and that click can only be misconstrued.  That said, have you ever seen anybody press it?

Not content with the glorious victory that was Betty White hosting Saturday Night Live, the denizens of Facebook have now turned their eyes to still more lofty goals: the Emmys and the Oscars.

As of right now, “Getting Betty White to Host the Academy Awards” is the most popular page, with 53,023 members at the time of posting. Then there’s “Betty White to Host the Oscars,” with 12,600 members. Both pages appear to be fan labors of love, much like “Betty White to Host SNL (please?)!”, and they’re already garnering copious amounts of media attention.

And then there’s “Betty White Must Host 2010 Emmys!”, which was launched by blogger Abe Gurko and has a little more than 2,000 fans. Gurko told us his reasoning for nominating the Golden Girls star: “I think that the Emmy awards shows over the years have been horrible. Bad writing, coupled with bad timing by the hosts. As these award shows have decreased in ratings, who better to put on hosting — or even co-hosting duties with Jimmy Fallon — than Betty. To give the show a much needed boost. Betty IS television.”

Just a few days ago, the Los Angeles Times covered this trend, pronouncing in the headline: Hipster Culture is Having a Senior Moment. While I would assert that the affinity for elderly stars etc goes far beyond the “hipster” set, I would agree that older folk — and especially White — are, indeed, becoming what amounts to an Internet meme.

Fans are enjoying the power they have come to wield, even when striving for goals that initially seem rather lofty (like having an older, less culturally relevant star host a major awards show). See also: Can This Onion Ring Get More Fans Than Justin Bieber?

Sure, White does have legit fans who want to see her succeed (Gurko and Co. seem extremely sincere), and, yes, she kicked serious ass on SNL last weekend, but, in the end, getting behind Betty seems like it’s becoming a bit of a trend.

It remains to be seen how effective campaigns like this will be as more and more continue to launch.

Tags: facebook, humor, pop culture, television

While it started as a joke, a group on Facebook is rapidly gaining popularity and becoming increasingly serious about getting William Shatner to be the next Governor General of Canada. OK, fine, it’s not actually becoming increasingly serious, but there’s no doubt that the group is experiencing massive growth, currently at 40,000+ members. The whole thing was started by a single reporter from the National Post and ballooned through word of mouth.

In a report given to the National Post, Matt Hartley, the creator of the group, explained how he created it as a joke after the Canadian Prime Minister threatened to oust the current Governor General. His project quickly grew to over 30,000 supporters and the story has been on two Canadian television networks, several radio stations and BBC Scotland. Matt is a technology reporter for the NP, and found it awesome to see the virality explode. He was able to view popularity by geography, and that was really enlightening for him.

Check out Matt’s account of the growth of his page, and also his analysis of the power of viral media in today’s political culture. He writes an excellent piece and it’s worth a read. Oh, and join the group

As soon as a game like Cafe World gains a certain amount of popularity, Youtube comedian Tobuscus never fails to put together a hilarious parody commercial about the game.  The latest video highlights the fact that mothers are choosing Cafe World over making real dinners, which is worthwhile for those looking to mimic starving models.  It’s at 200,000 views and quickly growing.  Check it out below!

Tobuscus also released other parody videos based on social games, both which are hilarious and are linked here. Click here for the Farmville Parody Commercial and here for the Mafia Wars Parody Commercial.

You’ve probably seen some unusual Facebook Groups and Fan pages lately, and the petition to make “Hella” a real number is just one more. However its initial appeal to a small group may be ending as it’s beginning to catch fire and go viral.

The official name of the Fan page is “The Official Petition to Establish ‘Hella-’ as the SI Prefix for 10^27.” That is, 10 to the power of 27, or ‘1′ followed by 27 zeros. The idea, which has drawn the attention of media outlets such as Fox News and Popular Science, partially stems from the use of numeric prefixes such as Mega, Giga, Tera, but originates in pop culture — namely the animated TV series South Park and elsewhere. This has prompted Austin Sendek, a physics student at University of California, Davis, petition to have “Hella-” be an official prefix.

If the petition is successful, the SI (International System of Units) would be the standards body that makes it official. The largest current prefix is “yotta” and represents 10^24 (”1″ followed by 24 zeros). As in, “my movie library takes up 8 YottaBytes.” The proposed Hella- prefix would be 1,000 times Yotta-. Wow, that’s a whole lotta love bytes (apologies to Led Zeppelin).

If the SI approves “Hella-” as a numeric prefix, you just might one day hear someone say something like, “My new Space Cadets smartphone has 16 HellaBytes of storage space. I can digitize my dog and reconstruct him on the Mars station.” But with only a tad over 31,000 fans (at the time of this writing), the idea still needs traction. Check out the Hella Facebook Page if you want to join the petition, or simply check out some of the amusing comments.

I look forward to the day when my hard drive has 16 HellaBytes of space — or whatever it’s called.