Facebook applications are cool and popular right now.  Everyone wants one.  Indeed, I found it very interesting that BJ Fogg is teaching a class on Facebook Apps.  This class seems relevant and interesting.  I'd take it!

Joshua Porter has written an article on the how recommendation systems are changing the Web. He lists several benefits and drawbacks stemming from these technologies. It is cool to observe that our group is actively researching to improve three of the four "drawbacks" that he lists:

• Dan Frankowski is working on Recommenders Everywhere - one attempt to make recommendation systems easier to set up
• Dan Cosley is working to providing tools that help communities build and maintain good databases
• Tony Lam is working to understand shilling in recommender systems