From match-making to mapping, there are hundreds of hidden features to feed that Facebook craving.
Last year, Facebook.com opened up its Application Programming Interface to the community, allowing anyone with the necessary talent and desire to develop programs that supplement Facebook.
The programs have recently drawn more high-profile attention, with over 100 on the Web site (http://developers.facebook.com) and countless others available across the Internet.
What this means, for students who are not programmers, is that Facebook now has a whole suite of add-on features to play with.
Let the procrastination begin.
Facebook started Developers Platform in August 2006 with the intention of allowing users to contribute to the evolution of the site.
"As a technology company, [the service] is core to our philosophy of openness and free flow of information," a Facebook spokesperson said.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology sophomore Chris Varenhorst is one such developer who has taken advantage of the interface, making an application called "Interesting Friendship Finder."
"Interesting Friendship Finder" does pretty much what the name claims. After you log in to his application through Facebook, it scans your friends list, and, with an algorithm, pulls out "interesting" friendships - two people in your friends list that know each other through unexpected ways.
Wharton and Engineering junior Ravi Mishra, who writes a blog the Internet, said these applications are developed because "nerds like to joke around and have fun and just play pranks."
"Humans are social creatures," he said. "The reason [social networking] is catching on is the technology is there now."
The Platform can be used for small projects like Varenhorst's application, but others see the potential to turn it into a business.
Mosoto (http://mosoto.com) is perhaps the most ambitious application being designed for the Facebook API - after connecting to Facebook, users access their existing friends list to chat, share files and stream music to each other, all through an easy-to-use Web interface. With it, you can access your friends' music from any computer, take that music and remix it into new playlists to share.
Mosoto co-founder Girard Kelly sees Mosoto adding to the social-networking framework that Facebook has already established.
Facebook "can't do everything," Kelly said. "They wanted third-party developers to come and develop on top of [them], while they focus on what they do best."
There are other applications, too. Some visualize your friends list like a spiderweb; others overlay friends' hometowns onto a map of the world. Several are designed around rating profile pictures, at least one is designed to set up friends on dates, and one collates data from your friends to see which books, movies and bands are most popular.
The developers are excited about what they can do with Facebook, but Wharton and Engineering sophomore Jonathan Coveney is much more cynical.
"Facebook is incredible, but, in ten years, do you still see yourself logging into Facebook as it is now?" Coveney asked. "They're saying, 'We're starting to run out of ideas, let's let other people come up with ideas.'"
