In short, in an almost Windows fashion, the bottom left corner of your Facebook experience now has a series of shortcuts to your favorite applications, and an “Applications” button which displays all Applications.  It really gives Applications a clear home in the new Facebook design, and shows just how quick and nimble they desire the user interface to be.  I really sense their aggressiveness in making FB your one-stop-shop for Games, Friends and maybe even Utilities (although that’s a way off).

In any case, this news, combined with the de-prioritization of Profile Boxes and super-prioritization of Tabs means that FB is trying to really promote the applications that you use often. If an app has a real-world value to you, you’ll add the tab and favourite it in your application bar.  And you’ll have one more reason to pop over to facebook.com, as if we needed another.