William Shatner took to his Tumblr account recently to write up a review of Facebook’s new app, Mentions. The Mentions app is not available to everyone, but is intended for celebrities and public figures who would get “mentioned” on Facebook. The idea is that it allows said celebs to interact better with fans and to keep track of their “publicity stock”, so to speak.

Shatner said he has three Facebook apps: Facebook, Pages, and now Mentions. Having all three, he felt he was in a good position to give the rest of us who can not access Mentions an idea of how well it works.

The first thing that rankled Kirk was the requirement that the celeb using the app “follow” another celebrity. True to Facebook form, the app offers suggestions. Apparently there is no algorithm to take into account decades-old rivalries and beefs.

“When you install the Mentions App you cannot proceed further until you follow another one of their other ‘celebrity’ accounts,” Shatner explained. “The first person on the list I was given was George Takei (rolling my eyes.) I ended up choosing Robert Downey Jr. to follow and then I hid his posts (sorry Robert!) I think that is a big flaw in the set up. If this app is for celebrities then WHY force them to follow another celebrity in order to set up this app? I think that is a flaw; I’m already following those who I want to follow – why insist I follow that short list of others?”

Shatner then proceeds to do a thorough breakdown of the of the app’s features, complete with screenshots. And, in the end, he offers his takeaway judgement on the app.

“I’m not quite sure why Facebook released this app for “celebrities”. It seems to be ill conceived,” Shatner said. “I will probably use it to post to my Facebook when I’m on my phone but it doesn’t allow for mail or groups. I will continue to use my regular Facebook App as well as the Pages app.”

Image via YouTube