FriendFeed released their API just a few days ago, but third party developers are already scrambling to build on top of the service.

We just heard that Howard/Baines will be releasing an Adobe AIR application for FriendFeed in the next week or so. So far all we have is the screen shot and a confirmation from Baines that his team is working on it. The application will be called Alert Thingy (I assume the site will be here).

If this is anything like Twhirl, an AIR application for Twitter, it’s likely to be a hit. Since it’s AIR it will work on both Windows and Macs right from the start. If the application also allows users to comment on items, post directly to FriendFeed, flag items as “liked,” etc., users will have little need to visit the FriendFeed site directly. And that should be fine with FriendFeed, since users will have persistent interaction with the service on the desktop.

Other early applications built on the FriendFeed API are coming out, too. See this WordPress plugin and FriendFeed Stats.