Essential App #12: Facebook Feeds The Connection Addiction

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There are a few Essential Apps that handle themselves so well on the iPhone they quickly eclipse the website they evolved from; apps that, once installed on the iPhone, completely replace their browser-based ancestors.

Essentials Yelp, The Weather Channel and Twitter clearly fall into this category. But Facebook’s app is different. It doesn’t just replace — it hooks.

By now, pretty much everyone and their mom (literally) has a Facebook account. Some use their accounts; others, not so much.

But for those who have an iPhone, Facebook is an irresistible lure. It’s not that the app does anything new (with one or two notable exceptions, see below) — it just makes all the elements that much more available. Facebook is a virtual party, to which the app grants instant, all-hours access; then it puts the party in your pants (that’s mostly not a euphemism). It’s like social crack — on crack.

All the main Facebook stuff is there, of course: read updates, chat with friends, count friends, make more friends, friends friends friends. But the app can also upload images straight from the iPhone’s camera (useful for, say, instantly showing the world how many 39-cent tacos one can shove in one’s mouth), and then there’s the recently added “Places,” a Foursquare-like check-in feature.

Oh, Facebook’s iPhone app is far from perfect. Editing your profile, viewing friends of friends, dumping ex-friends and other assorted tasks here and there still have to be done through the website (and no, you can’t play Farmville either); worse, sometimes it just plain doesn’t work — which is hugely annoying. But ultimately, the most annoying thing is knowing the reason those problems are so bothersome…is because you’re so hooked.

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