Give credit to Seattle-based Classmates.com for being smart enough to launch its own Facebook app -- setting aside its pride and embracing a site that, for many people, has replaced Classmates as a means of reconnecting with old friends from high school and college. But in my experience, at least, the initial version of the app highlights the reasons many people switched to Facebook in the first place.

We've known the app was coming since Classmates.com updated its privacy policy in January in anticipation of the launch. It's now available. To find and install the app, search for "Classmates Connect" on Facebook. As part of the setup process, the app will prompt you to enter your Classmates.com login and password or to sign up for a membership if you don't have one.

The app will then pull into Facebook a list of Classmates.com members from your class, along with additional tabs to see the latest activity from your high-school friends on Classmates.com, and upcoming reunions. Very cool, but that's also where things start to get less-than-useful.

Reading the list of Classmates.com members in the app, everyone I wanted to connect with from high school was already my friend on Facebook. When I clicked on names, the app took me to their profile pages on Classmates.com, which felt in almost every case like visiting an abandoned ghost town, compared with the bustling city of Facebook. No reunions were scheduled for my class, the activity log was sparse, and I had to opt-out of signing a guest book if I didn't feel like letting the other person know I viewed their profile.

One name on the Classmates list did remind me of someone I wanted to catch up with, but he, too, was already my friend on Facebook, and exchanging private messages on Classmates requires a premium membership. So I just found him in the Facebook search field instead and contacted him there.

People at Classmates.com no doubt worked hard on this Facebook app, and they seem excited about the potential. Although the company hasn't made a public announcement that we can find, Classmates.com vice president Robert Rebholz posted about it on his personal blog, striking an optimistic tone.

"Wow, it’s been a amazing personal story of epic proportions, but, it’s finally here," Rebholz wrote. "I expect this is only a first, tentative, step. We’ve a lot more we can do here – a whole lot more. In fact, we’ve done a 'Apple' on Classmates and in the coming months, with a little luck, you’ll see the results."

Classmates in February reported that active users had hit record levels, following a redesign of the site. Mark Goldston, CEO of Classmates.com parent company United Online, recently downplayed the competition with Facebook and called Classmates.com "the most profitable social network in the world."

That may be true, and there may be great stuff yet to come from Classmates.com, but as it stands, it's tough to see the company's Facebook app doing much to change the momentum.

Previously: Classmates.com forced to face up to Facebook