Facebook Applications Tips

If you are a Facebook user, you've noticed the updates from your friends that they're improving their score on this app, or reached a new level on that app. Did you know you can control what your friends see about you?

You can control how much an app publishes for you. Just go into your Facebook settings (by clicking on the top right corner of your screen), and select Applications from the drop down menu.

Now you can see all the apps you've used in the last month. You can change the view, by using the drop down labeled "Show". If you are showing Authorized, you should be seeing most, if not all apps that have the ability to post items about you.

Here's the important part: next to each app, you have three options: edit, about, x.

X will remove the app. Perfect for app that you only used once. (A friend sent you something, or you just wanted to see what the app was, etc.) This removes all the apps authorizations, and you won't see it anymore.

"About" will take you to a page about the app. It will show you who the publisher is and see any discussions about it.

Edit is what we are focused on. Click on edit and you will see a list of options that can vary from one app to another. Under the wall tab, you can control what is posted for you about your activities on this app. This is what I was looking for when I was trying to figure how to control what my friends saw. I've changed most of my apps to "Prompt me before publishing any stories".

You can also look at the other tabs. You'll see profile, which lets you pick if the apps appear on your profile as a box, a tab, and who can see your profile. Apps that are set to appear on your profile as a box will appear as a small box on your main page. An app that is set to appear as a tab will show up as a tab at the top of your main page. When you set who can see your profile, you can choose from only you, only your friends (and you!), friends of friends (includes your friends and you), or your network and friends (all of the above). Another tab is Bookmark, which controls if you see the app at the bottom and top right of your screen, useful if it's an app you use regularly. You may also see a tab for Additional Permissions. This is for some unique apps like Facebook for your phone or BlackBerry.

I encourage you to take time to explore these settings as well as the other settings that Facebook lets you control. I'd suggest checking these out for any website, software, webmail, or anything else you use. How to get to the settings and the options may change, but most programs make it easy to figure out what the options mean. If you have some you'd like me to specifically address, please let me know in the comments.

Please use the comments to ask any questions about what I've covered here or about anything else you'd like me to discuss.