Saturday, June 30, 2007

Facebook gets useful


One of the things i hate about all the socnet craze is lack of actual real-life utility these communities provide. Don't get me wrong, I love cruising through my friend's (and non-friend's) photos and gawking at whats-her-name who now has kids with whats-his-face, but beyond that the socnets out there are really being under utilized as organizing tools for the dirtworld.

Facebook is aiming to change that. I found (finally) an application that they've put together that may actually provide a community service for all of us Facebook users. It's called CarPool and its one of the better apps that FB has put out there for users to organize offline.

It fits into your profile page on FB and allows your friends to see both the rides you're offering or rides you're desiring in the coming days or weeks. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this app is that it actually shows you your history of Carpool usage -- and then breaks down the amount of CO2 you have saved as a result of sharing rides.

Carpooling is gaining in popularity especially among the younger generation who sees conserving energy as a daily activity. Integrating the idea into a socnet like Facebook is taking it to a new level of online organization. I'm glad Facebook is starting to open up applications that aren't all about, say, a fortune cookie that reads me my daily automated fortune.

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