Ping.Fm (updated)

by Marvin 17. September 2008 02:24

9/17/08 Just an update to this post. Ping.Fm is now out of beta so anyone can go sign-up and get it. For all my fellow T-mobile users, I also learned that you can actually update your status from your T-mobile phone using SMS-to-email. I learned the details of how to do this here.

I just got my application key for the beta application Ping.Fm, and I have to say that I am very impressed with this application.  I stumbled across it while on Facebook.  I have been looking for a way to get my Twitter updates to populate to Facebook.  If you've tried any of the Twitter apps on Facebook, you know that they are buggy or don't work at all.  Then, I noticed an acquaintance of mine, Jeff Blankenburg, was using this thing called Ping.Fm.  Jeff is a developer evangelist for Microsoft, so I figure he's got the inside on the cool stuff which made me curious about this Ping.Fm thing. 

If you try to add the application on Facebook or if you go to the Ping.Fm site, you'll notice that it's in beta and you have to request an application key.  I don't know when they are going to run out of keys or when this baby is going to be available for everyone, but I was still able to get a key.  It took about 3 days after I submitted the online form, and I didn't get any kind of email confirmation after submitting, so I wondered if they had quit taking new beta users.  I was quite excited when I got the key via email yesterday, and I rushed over to Facebook, and tried to enter it in.  Facebook, however, wouldn't take it.  What!?  Undecided

No problem.  It turns out you have to login to Ping.Fm the first time with the application key that they send you, enter it in, and then, on the Ping.Fm site, there's a link on your "dashboard" to get the real application key which you'll need to activate with Facebook.  Just click on "Application Key" (see below).

The application is awesome.  You can update your status on Ping.Fm and it can send the update to a wide variety of other social networking sites.  Take your pick.  I am sending my updates to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but thanks to Ping.Fm, I only have to update in one place.  They don't have an SMS gateway yet, but that's coming soon, they say.  Once they get that, I'll be able to send updates via SMS from my cell phone.  If you can SMS to email or send emails from your phone, Ping.Fm already has support for that.  Since I have the cheapest plan that T-mobile has to offer, I am going to have to wait for that SMS gateway.  I think the thing that most impresses me about this application, considering that there are other applications that have tried to do this on Facebook without success, is that this app actually works!  Laughing 

Go check it out!

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About the author

I am a junior-level C# .NET developer living in Nashville, TN.  I'm currently working in biomedical informatics, developing a web service, a MySql database, and a web application.  Every week or so, I spend hours trying to figure out how to do something, and after I find the solution, I really want to make sure I don't go through that exercise again.  I love to write.  It helps me to remember things.  So, I use this blog as a way to document those painful lessons as I learn them.  It has already helped me to be able to refer back to them.  I hope some of these will save someone else some time as well.