If you took a Facebook sabbatical this summer, upon your first log in you were probably greeted with a bevy of requests, including offers to become a zombie or vampire, compare your friends or the chance to cast Harry Potter spells on others.

Confused? Over the past few months Facebook opened up their Web site to allow new, independently designed features. Now there are 4,255 different applications out there to spruce up your profile, each ranging in popularity, here are some samples:

The Happy Hour:

This application provides digital drinking. Picking from a variety of alcoholic beverages, you then send them virtually to your different friends on the site.

The Graffiti Wall:

An artistic addition, the user can draw all kinds of images with a paintbrush tool on their friends’ ‘walls.’ One of the first applications, it is also one of the most popular.

iLike:

The orignial music application, iLike connects users with iTunes to provide a variety of musical sampling for themselves and their profile viewers. This application enables the user to advertise his or her favorite artists, dedicate songs and sample new artists. There are other music applications as well, but iLike is the most popular as of now.

Travel Map ‘ Where I’ve been:

Proud of your travels? Then show your Facebook friends where you have been around the globe.

But has this abundance of new options hurt or helped Facebook in its long-running battle against the popular social networking site MySpace?

Meg Flessa, a sophomore biology major, has some strong feelings toward the changes.

‘I absolutely hate the user-made applications,’ Flessa said. ‘I get all of these stupid quiz invites and food thrown at me ‘ I wish I knew how to stop them from invading my profile.’

Aaron Meyer, a freshman, finds some of the applications useful, but others infuriating.

‘Some of the new applications can make for a useful way to share things, such as videos and music, while others I find to be really annoying,’ he said.

Not everybody finds them useless. Tracy Herrmann, a junior political science major and resident assistant in College-in-the-Woods’ Oneida Hall, finds them interesting.

‘I think the new user-made applications are pretty cool and allow you to personalize your page even more,’ Herrmann said. ‘There are so many ‘ everyone can find something they like.’

Since the big privacy scare of introducing the newsfeed, students have been cautious about putting content on the networking site. Now, some time within the month, Facebook profiles will be searchable from popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Users can opt out of having their profiles searchable by changing their privacy settings on Facebook. If they don’t and their name is searched, the search engine will only show that the user has an account. No personal information other than the name and picture will be given.

Just how much longer will students stand by the ever-evolving site?

Herrmann didn’t take Facebook’s notice to users seriously.

‘I never really read that section on the top of the screen about the whole Google/Yahoo thing, but I don’t like it all and will be changing my privacy settings,’ she said.

Flessa looked to Facebook as a safer alternative to MySpace.

‘I liked the fact that you could not see someone else’s profile unless you were friends with them or you were in their network,’ she said.

‘I think [the changes to Facebook] are horrible, considering the fact that some people ‘ including me ‘ had no idea that their profiles were searchable on Google or Yahoo,’ Flessa continued. ‘When I signed up for Facebook, all I wanted to do was get to know people from my college. Now look what it has turned into ‘ another Myspace.’

Meyer, on the other hand, has no qualms with the new content and public searching.

‘If you’re worried about privacy, don’t put up information or pictures that you wouldn’t want someone else to see,’ he said. ‘If it’s possible for the user to control the amount of privacy, then I’m fine with Facebook making profiles searchable on Google.’