I HAD to take a break from writing Form Tools 2 documentation. I HAD to. Really, I was going crazy. But now this is done, guess I’ll return to it… urrrrgh.
Anyway, as a short break, I thought I’d tinker with Facebook and write a simple application. See here: (you’ll need to be logged into Facebook)

http://apps.facebook.com/servicehunter/

Here’s the explanatory blurb from the About page:

A big thanks to David Jordan for coming up with the idea for this Facebook app. It gave me a good excuse to spent a few evenings learning Facebook about development – something I’ve been meaning to learn for some time… plus it’s a neat app!

Dave and I being 30-somethings, we’d encountered similar problems: the frustration of trying to locate services for things that are out of our typical range of experience – finding an auto garage, plumber, electrician, people to empty our septic tank, you name it. Finding them in the phone book was easy, but who really knows if they’re trustworthy, reasonably priced or even any good? So, like everyone else, we’d ask friends and family hoping to get a recommendation. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. This script will hopefully encourage folks to pass along recommendations – and warnings! – for services in their area.

Oh, and feel free to post your own services. Right now, I manually approve all new and updated postings. But depending on how it goes, I’ll probably switch it to being self-managed with a simple “three flags and you’re out!” system. If you have any questions or comments, use the board below. Enjoy!

Writing this application was really just a means to an end. I began sketching out an ambitious Flash game which I want to release as a Facebook app, but I figured I didn’t actually know ANYTHING about writing for Facebook. So this gave me an excuse to test the waters. They’re not too deep, that’s for sure. Very simple stuff.