9 New and Noteworthy Facebook Timeline Apps

Whether you’re an avid runner on a training program or just looking for a way to stay motivated, check out Runkeeper, an app that lets you track your workouts, map your routes and more.

Once you connect your Facebook account to Runkeeper, you’ll be able to browse your “Street Team” (i.e., Facebook friends who also use the app). In addition, you can search for new routes, races and fitness classes; maintain your Fitness Report, which tracks your progress; and find races to participate in.

With summer right around the corner, you may be on the hunt for a new, good book to read. Goodreads, a social network for bookworms, uses your Facebook network to connect you with other Goodreads members. Here, you can view the books your friends have read, read their reviews, subscribe to groups and build your own list of books to read. 

There’s the saying that Facebook News Feeds are littered with posts about what people had for dinner–but with this app, sharing your mealtime details is encouraged. Foodspotting, for the real foodie, lets you upload pictures as well as find, share and recommend favorite dishes, rather than reviewing restaurants.

By connecting with your Facebook friends, you can see where they’ve been and what they recommend. You can also search outside your network based on location for recently uploaded photos of favorite dishes.

What do you care about? Causes, a network of philanthropists and activists, seeks to empower individuals to create grassroots communities that take action on behalf of a specific issue or nonprofit organization. Since 2007, the site has more than 170 million members, raising $40 million for 27,000 nonprofits.

When you connect it to your Facebook account, you can view which causes your friends support. Donating money is one option; another way to contribute is to advocate for your friends by joining their groups and spreading the word.

In the last few months, Pinterest, a visual bookmarking service or digital inspiration board, has exploded in popularity. Members create pin boards and, using a downloadable bookmarklet, upload photos–anything from cars to recipes to homegoods and more.

There are a number of “social reader” apps available now–The Washington Post, Yahoo News, BuzzFeed and more. But if you’re looking to lighten up your reading, give The Onion’s app a try.

Like the other social readers, once you connect it to your Facebook account you can see content relevant to you based on what your friends are reading and watching–but the stories are much more fun.

The Rotten Tomatoes Facebook app lets you connect with your Facebook friends to check out what movies they’ve seen, liked and disliked–and hopefully help you make a decision on what to see next. Other features once you’ve connected your Facebook account: Read reviews from your friends, view statistics such as the most popular movies among your friends, and browse your friends’ “Want to See” movie lists.

Spotify was in the premier group of apps Facebook launched, and since then it has added a number of new features. When you connect Spotify to your Facebook account, you can discover your friends’ top tracks and their recent playlists, see–and hear–what your friends are listening to, and more.

One major complaint users had was Spotify broadcasting to your Facebook friends the songs you were listening to. You can use Spotify privately–just as you can use all other apps privately–by changing the activity setting from Friends to Only Me.

BranchOut, an app from job site Monster.com, brings professional social networking into Facebook. The app, which resides within Facebook, lets you connect with your friends–on a professional level–see what companies they work for and the work experience they have. Also, from within the app, you can browse job listings and see which ones Monster has matched to you based on your information.