---
title: "Dabble Do Launches – Social To-Do List for Facebook"
date: 2007-08-07
author: "Richard MacManus"
categories:
  - name: "ReadWriteWeb"
    url: "/category/readwriteweb.md"
tags:
  - name: "2007"
    url: "/tag/2007.md"
---

# Dabble Do Launches – Social To-Do List for Facebook

![](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519175525im_/http://rww.readwriteweb.netdna-cdn.com/images/dabbledb_logo.gif)Web office vendor Dabble DB has jumped on the Facebook bandwagon and launched a “social to-do list” [called Dabble Do](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519175525/http://blog.dabbledb.com/2007/08/introducing-dab.html). You can get it on Facebook [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519175525/http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=3267270300). How is it social, I hear you ask? Basically you can assign items not only to yourself, but to your friends – and be kept up-to-date on their status. It comes with a variety of different actions, as explained by the Dabble DB blog:

> “Whenever someone assigns you an item, depending on how you’re feeling, you can respond to it in a number of ways:
> 
>  \* Industrious: complete it by checking it off; \* Contrarian: reject it by sending it back to the assigner; or \* Lazy: “pass the buck” and reassign it someone else
> 
> If you have assigned the item to a friend, you can “crack the whip” to remind them of it.”

Unlike the complex enterprise app [Dabble DB](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519175525/http://dabbledb.com/), Dabble Do is a consumer app that aims for simplicity. Indeed I had trouble describing Dabble DB [when it launched a year ago](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519175525/http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=222) – I ended up calling it “part spreadsheet, part database, part collaboration app”! But with Dabble Do, it’s a simple Facebook plug-in and appears to be aiming for informal use.

## Outsourcing Social Network to Facebook

Just as with [Firefox yesterday](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519175525/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/firefox_launches_facebook_app.php), Dabble Do is essentially outsourcing the social network aspect to Facebook. I realise a lot of people are sick of the attention Facebook is getting, but when sophisticated web companies/orgs like Mozilla and Dabble DB start using Facebook as their social network arm, well that’s a big Web trend in my book.

## My Verdict

I’ve installed Dabble Do, but I have to say I doubt I’ll use it much. There are two reasons for that: 1) I already use Basecamp for To Do’s in both my business and personal life, and I’m very happy with that software; 2) Dabble Do doesn’t seem to be an open system, much like Facebook itself. As Boris Mann noted in [this discussion thread](https://web.archive.org/web/20110519175525/http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=3267270300&topic=3182), “I simply won’t invest time in data that I can’t easily get to / get out.” And I completely agree with him.

What do you think of both this new app, and the general trend of companies outsourcing their social network to Facebook?

*Originally published on ReadWriteWeb ([archived copy](https://web.archive.org/web/20020204040018/http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dabble_do_launches_social_to_do_lists.php))*