September 25, 2007

Got a Minute? 1-Minute Daily Devotions are on Facebook

If you have a Facebook account, you may be interested in knowing that I created a Facebook application for Right From The Heart called Right From The Heart 1-Minute Daily Devotion.

More than a 100,000 people a day are joining the social web site Facebook. They’re not just kids and teenagers either. The fastest growing age group is 25 and up. They come to hang out with those they know, learn about people they’ve have met, and express their personalities in their customized personal profiles. Facebookies upload their favorite photos and videos and customize or enhance their profile with an odd combination of useful and quirky applications.

Facebook has over 30 Million registered users. It’s the sixth most trafficked site on the internet, and its users are amazingly devoted, or perhaps just addicted. 50% of Facebook users return to the site every single day.

By the way, these stats—a few months outdated—came from a speech given by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s keynote at the f8 Conference. How old is he, about 16? Can he drive yet? I guess he’s a little older than that since he developed the app while attending Harvard. If you’re not that familiar with the origins of Facebook, this FastCompany article is an interesting read.

Developing the App

Developing the app took me longer than I thought it would. I don’t particularly enjoy reading instructions about anything, and the application docs were not as helpful as I hoped they would be. I wanted them to hold my hand and walk me through it a little more.

One frustration was not being able to get the application to refresh itself every day automatically, so I had to make a link that to do that. Solving that issue would have made the app much stronger.

When I get a chance, I’d love to revisit this and solve these problems and see what else can be done with a Facebook app.

Install it and Share it

Not only will the Right From The Heart 1-Minute Daily Devotion remind you about what matters most in life, when you install the application, your Facebook friends see that you’ve installed it, and perhaps want to install it as well. That makes Facebook an easy way to share your faith and get the Word out. So far, the app has been added to over 350 profiles.

Not on Facebook: Learn More or Sign Up
Already on Facebook: Install the Application or See it on my profile