14-Feb-2008 - In memory of my fellow NIU Huskies: Gayle, Catalina, Julianna, Ryanne, and Daniel. May they rest in peace.

Facebook Beautifier

The Problem

It is my opinion that the majority of Facebook applications are entirely useless, doing nothing but cluttering up people's profiles and making it impossible to find anything worthwhile. Locating what interests me shouldn't have to be a treasure hunt. And quite frankly, the applications are hideous enough to drive people like myself away from the site altogether.

But it doesn't have to be that way. Facebook could give us the ability to completely disable all third party applications and only enable the few that excite us. Oh, I know they let us hide applications on our own profiles. But come on. If people aren't responsible enough to not add a bunch of ridiculous applications in the first place, why are they going to bother cleaning up their profiles?

The Solution

Since Facebook hasn't addressed it in a satisfactory manner, I decided to just fix it myself by using Firefox and my own Greasemonkey script that does the following:

• Hides all third party applications by default,
• Automatically ignores spammy application invitiations,
• Completely removes all related information from the minifeed and other parts of the site,
• Hides ads and sponsored links, and
• Colors false links to profiles (that you cannot see) black like regular text.

And of course, you are able to adjust the behavior of the above features via a settings dialog.

Installing Facebook Beautifier

First, you must be running the Firefox web browser. If you haven't ever heard of it, then I suggest you check it out regardless if you choose to install my Facebook script. Second, you must install the Greasemonkey extension (while running Firefox). It provides people like myself the ability to easily change the way websites look and work.

Now just, install Facebook Beautifier and you're all set!

Using Facebook Beautifier

Once it's installed and you log in to Facebook, you'll see the following dialog:

You can also adjust the settings later by clicking on the "Facebook Beautifier Settings" link at the bottom of every page. The application icon is grayed out if the application is not enabled:

To enable an application, just click on its icon. It will then be enabled for everybody's profile. Clicking on the "View Full Profile" link will show all applications without adding them to your whitelist. You'll notice little stars on each application box:

Clicking on the star will add the application to your allowed list. Note that those stars are only available while viewing the full profile. Otherwise, you'll see an X that can be used to hide the application.

There's also an "Edit Default Applications" link at the bottom of every profile page that can be used to hide and show applications:

Only the applications on that particular profile are shown.

Have Questions or Comments?

Join the Facebook Beautifier group if you do.

FAQ

• What are the requirements to use this? You must be running Firefox with the Greasemonkey add-on installed.
  
  
• Will this change any of my Facebook settings or my profile? The main thing that it does is hide applications on other people's profiles while you view them. If you choose to automatically block requests from unknown applications, they will be added to your Facebook block list. That only stops those applications from spamming you in the future. You can still view those applications or add them if you ever want to.
  
  
• Do you collect any information from me? You can optionally choose to save your settings remotely (on my server) so that you can keep your settings in sync across more than one computer. This is not enabled by default. If you do enable it, your Facebook user id (a number) and the list of your preferred applications will be privately stored. Also, it will periodically anonymously check for newer versions in order to keep it functioning properly. (You will be notified if a newer version is available.)
  
  
• Why does it sometimes take a few seconds to clean up the page? This isn't a perfect solution. Greasemonkey scripts run as soon as the page is loaded, so there will always be a slight delay in the clean up. Usually it's not a big problem. If it is, tell your friends to remove all the stupid applications on their profiles.
  
  
• Are there other ways to clean up profiles? There are other Greasemonkey scripts that do similar things. It's also possible to hide things with just a custom CSS file, which is "faster" but not interactive.