What does Barack Obama have in common with zombies, Dwight Schrute of NBC's "The Office," Scrabble and your favorite soccer team? All can be found in unlikely juxtaposition on Facebook Web pages everywhere.
When it debuted in 2004 from now-CEO Mark Zuckerberg's Harvard University dormitory room, Facebook was simply a tool for online social networking. Three years later, it has become a bustling forum for opinions, barters and the simply strange. Today, Facebook has over 35 million active users and 2,000 applications with more than 100 users for each application, Malorie Lucich, a representative of the Web site, wrote in an e-mail.
Unlike many students, senior Rob Goodlatte-a Chronicle photographer-views Facebook's new applications function with the eyes of a businessman. Goodlatte created a Facebook application for a company named Newsline during an internship this summer.
"In late May or early June, Facebook opened up their entire network for businesses to come in," he said. "It started to take off exponentially."
Goodlatte explained that businesses profit by running ads alongside their applications on the site. The Election '08 application that Goodlatte created-which lets Facebook users endorse presidential candidates-contains a link to relevant news stories on Newsline, thus increasing Newsline's site traffic. Goodlatte added that the mini-feed feature-which allows users to see their Facebook friends' recent activity-causes "a huge snowball effect" when a user adds a new application, bringing the application to the attention of hundreds of potential users.
Students like freshman Grant Meeker, however, registered with Facebook for social reasons, not for the applications tools.
"I applied to Duke early decision and started using Facebook to meet classmates," Meeker said. "It's a good tool. It allowed me to find a roommate instead of going to random, and that worked out really well."
Meeker added that he "boycotted all of the applications" on Facebook because he felt the site increasingly resembled its rival site MySpace, where "you can customize your page so much that it looks odd."
Freshman Henry Hwang, however, noted the positive aspects of the Web site's new applications. He said the applications "enhance a person's personality on their profile."
"I first went to Facebook because of its minimalist qualities and the absence of overwhelming graphical detail, but after a few months, the background seemed blank," he said.
Other students said they believe the applications interfere with the site's original intent. Sophomore Brianne Connolly said she uses Facebook as a tool for keeping up with friends more in college than she had in high school.
"I don't think [the new applications] serve a purpose at all," she said. "Facebook was a good place to communicate with friends, but now it has a lot of random stuff that I feel takes away from its purpose."
Students are not the only members of the Duke community who make use of Facebook's applications. Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, said he was "one of the early users" of the site.
"For me, it's more of a novelty and a cultural phenomenon than a part of my life," he said.
Moneta said he did not use many of Facebook's new applications, but did enjoy Scrabulous, an application that allows users to carry on Internet Scrabble games with friends.
"I don't know where [Facebook] is going, but it's going to be impressive," Goodlatte said.
Facebook representatives declined to comment on the new applications.
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