Facebook: please forget about bookmarks for applications

The latest Facebook changes have introduced many nice touches for both users and developers but something that's causing lots of troubles is the bookmarks feature for applications.

Before the changes every Facebook user had a sidebar on the profile with the applications he or she had installed, now the applications are on the bottom part of the page inside an expandable menu but the only applications listed there are the ones a user has bookmarked.

The problem is that the bookmarking process is a mess. There's a long thread on the Facebook developer's forums that starts with a post listing all the clicks and guesses needed to get bookmarks working, and that's in the case of a smart user. Regular users may never find out how bookmarks work and lots of nice applications, including the ones a user accepted to add, will be lost.

That's not good for users and it's super bad for Facebook applications developers. By the way, if you're not coding a Facebook application yet you may will be doing it soon, trust me.

What most people are asking for is that Facebook forgets about its bookmarks concept and simply provide a menu listing the applications a user has recently added and/or used. If you want to have your say on this matter I suggest you post on the original discussion at Facebook.

Of course, a clearly written and visible FAQ for users would be great too.