Blogging Tories launches Facebook applications

Blogging Tories was the original political blogroll/aggregator in Canada and today it continues to break new ground.

As many readers already know, the Facebook phenomenon is getting blanket coverage in the media and among bloggers and it is the largest online social network assembled in the history of the world (that may sound like hyperbole… but it’s true). People have reconnected with old buddies from high school, are announcing social get-togethers across their network of Facebook friends and are associating and assembling among shared groups with common interests.

The last time I checked, Facebook had over 9 million users and has recently edged out eBay for daily page-views. (I just re-checked. Facebook has 20 million users)

So, what does this mean for the future of the Internet? I’m not sure, but like Blogging Tories, Facebook is inherently community-based and it would be useful to bridge both media. That’s why when Facebook opened up it’s web architecture to developers and other nerds, I got going trying to figure it out so that Blogging Tories could leverage the ‘other Internet’ that is Facebook.

I’ve developed two Facebook applications. The first application displays the most recent five Blogging Tories postings from the BT aggregator. Now you can add the most recent news and gossip from the Blogging Tories bloggers into your Facebook profile page. There are also useful links into other facets of the BT community available from the application.

The other Facebook application is a “I support Stephen Harper” image switcher. A set of images is contained within the application and the installer of the application can switch to a favourite image and fix it in place for visitors to their profile. Simple yet functional!