This undated handout product image provided by Facebook shows the company’s App Center. On Thursday, June 7, 2012, Facebook is beginning to roll out its App Center to its nearly 1 billion users, so they can find games and other applications with a social component more easily. The App Center will initially feature about 500 Facebook apps, mostly games, that the company has reviewed to meet its quality standards.NEW YORK – There’s more to Facebook apps than “Angry Birds” and Pinterest, but many users wouldn’t know that because there hasn’t been a good, central way to find them.
Facebook Inc. is trying to change that. On Thursday, Facebook is beginning to roll out its App Center to its nearly 1 billion users, so they can find games and other applications with social components more easily.
The App Center, available on Facebook’s website and on Apple and Android mobile devices, will recommend apps to users based on their interests, the types of apps their friends like, or the apps they have liked in the past.
Many people are introduced to Facebook apps in the form of sometimes-annoying requests from their friends for poker partners, Scrabble buddies or neighbors on virtual farms. Those requests haven’t necessarily matched a user’s specific interests.
The new App Center will initially feature about 600 Facebook apps, mostly games, reviewed by the company to meet its quality standards. Games, such as Zynga’s “CityVille” and Electronic Arts’ “The Sims,” are the most popular types of apps on Facebook.