Whether you use them for brainstorming, planning, organizing, taking notes, or office layouts mind mapping web applications are superior in many ways to the old pen and paper approach. Being able to save, access and share your work from anywhere with internet access as well as having the capability to simultaneously collaborate on a project or publish it to a blog makes these applications immensely powerful. Check out my list of the top free mind mapping web applications on the internet.

Bubbl.us
By far bubbl.us is the easiest mind mapping web application to use and yet still remains a very powerful tool. Within minutes you will have figured it out how to use it. The interface is largely intuitive and you can even use it without signing up, though in order to take advantage of all the features you should get yourself a free account.

features:

• Create colorful mind maps online
• Share and work with friends
• Embed your mind map in your blog or website
• Email and print your mind map
• Save your mind map as an image

Mind42.com
This one is has potential for more detail as you can attach notes and links to any nodes that you wish. Also, like bubbl.us you can zoom in and out to get a birds eye view. The major down for this app is that there is no collaborative capability.

features

• Create and share your work online with a private link.
  
• You can Create a diverse amount of diagrams,charts and layouts.
• Save on your PC (Save as .PNG or .PDF)
• Share diagrams with others (via private link)

Glinkr.com
Glinkr is based on boxes linked up with arrows. It is easy to learn and like Mind42 you can add links and descriptions to the boxes. In all honesty I think that Bubbl.us has a smoother work flow and looks prettier. Glinkr, like bubbl.us, features is the ability to share your mind maps by embedding them to your own site or third party site. Also, the embedded mind maps will be updated automatically if you ever change them.

Thinkature.com
Thinkature has a really smooth interface that also includes a versatile drawing feature in addition to the text boxes linked up with arrows. You can also add images from the web or yoru hard drive as well. The major selling point of thinkature seems to be collaboration as they not only have a text-based chat feature but also a voice chat feature. If you will be using mind mapping primarily in a collaborative environment this app is the one for you.

Wisemapping.com
While Wisemapping has a clean look and familiar features like sharing, embedding mind maps in blogs, it seems bloated with an extended tool bar that allows you to change the shapes and colors of different nodes, tag them, and puts various fonts at your disposal. This seems a bit uneccessary to me and an additional drawback is the inability to collaborate. One unique feature, however, is the ability to link documents to different nodes.

ImaginationCubed.com
Imaginationcubed is unique in that it is more like a stripped down paint program with an optional grid background. This might be fun to play around with or it may serve as a good medium to sketch something simple out really quick and send it to someone but it’s not all that serious a competitor to any of the others mentioned here.

Did I miss anything? Please feel free to share your favorites in the comments.

If you have been on Facebook lately you are probably tired of receiving invites to applications that are haraam (forbidden) or even pointless. You know what I’m talking about, when was the last time you used “Superpoke!” for a halal reason? There so many Facebook apps revolving around poking other people: foreign poke, office poke, kinky poke, karma poke, naughty poke, poke pro, desi poke, dive poke, gift poke, pet poke, poke stats, poke wars and the list goes on for a total of 177 applications. Yes, that’s right, 177 applications dedicated to poking.

Well, here’s some good news. Believe it or not, there is a small but growing trend of Muslims creating Islam related Facebook applications that can actually benefit other Muslims. At the moment there are about 20 such applications. Twenty applications sounds like a lot and can really cramp your Facebook profile, but lucky for you I have compiled the top four Muslim Facebook apps here for you in no particular order ;).

1. Islamify.com by Islamify.com

This app is the number one Muslim news application on Facebook. The Islamify team set up this application so that the top stories from Islamify.com, a Muslim Social News site, show up on your Facebook profile. This gives you instant access to the hottest Islam related news right from an automatically updated application.

2. Quran Verses by Abdullah Arif

Add verses from the Noble Qur’an to your profile from over 23 languages! This application offers great flexibility in choosing the suras (chapters) from which to choose the verses, the number of verses to display, among many other options!

3. Hadith by Khaleel Mughal
This application will display a random Hadith (saying of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) on your profile, allow you to search for hadith and bookmark your favorites, its also in English and Arabic!

4. The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) Quotes and Teachings by ByteSize
This application allows you to get the words and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad on your profile and phone!

There you have it. Now you can use these apps to enrich yourself or for dawah through your Facebook profile. Inshallah these apps will become as viral as “Superpoke!” and spread like wildfire through Facebook. It’s all in your hands. I’ve linked the above list directly to their corresponding apps, so don’t forget to click on the ones you want!

Are there any other Facebook apps we might have missed? Comment and share them with us.