This may be easier said than done, and among their biggest competitors in this effort is obviously Google.

While Facebook is essentially a social network it has been trying to incorporate search into social. On the other hand, Google which is basically a search engine has been working hard to get a foothold in social through their social network Google +.

Facebook certainly has a much larger user base than Google +. This could work in its favour as they will be able to attract more people to see their ads. However, certain features of Google +, are more attractive than those on Facebook.

While users of Facebook are mostly connected only to their friends due to the privacy settings of that network, it is easier to get in touch with a wide variety of people on Google +.

This kind of networking obviously leads to more stimulating and informative discussions, rather than the discussions on Facebook where people usually talk to each other about their day to day schedule or days events.

Also users can access many more sites such as Places, Maps and Navigation, YouTube and others through Google +.

Based on these observations one will have to wait and watch which social network will ultimately attract more advertisers and thus generate more revenue.

The new scheme is being tried out currently in New Zealand.

New Zealand-based news magazine, Stuff, first reported this new service when it was discovered by one of the users in Whangarei.

The user first thought that this was just another Facebook-based con doing the rounds. However, a spokesperson of Facebook later confirmed that this was a genuine service that was in the trial stages.

“We’re constantly testing new features across the site. This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.” the spokesperson for Facebook further said that a number of new ways of highlighting certain posts were being tried out and this was one of them.

The highest charge for highlighting a post has been pegged at £1.25 ($2) while others cost 25p or 50p. Payments can be made through credit card or PayPal.

The spokesperson also clarified that ways to highlight certain posts for free were also being tested. He however did not clarify how long the tests would go on, and whether they were likely to be tried out in other regions.

Facebook is due to float an IPO shortly and has been trying various ways to increase their revenue generating capacity.

Additionally, the social network has also seen a slow-down in growth in recent months, and this could be one of the ways they hope to be able to make up for the slow-down.

Facebook claims that this new facility could be beneficial to users when they want to publicise a particular post.

Many argue that small businesses or certain charitable organisations might use the service but they find it difficult to see how it would be helpful to the average user of the social network.

Competing with eBay

What these critics don’t realise is that individual users do sell and buy goods in an open market – after all, that is what built eBay into the e-commerce powerhouse it is today.

Facebook could use the same idea as eBay, except here individual users could buy and sell goods from a trusted network rather than absolute strangers, potentially making it a very strong source of competition for the online auction site in the future.

Only time will tell how popular this new feature will become and whether Facebook has the ability to turn their social network into a trusted commerce network, which will in turn dictate how much money Facebook will actually be able to generate through it.

The stated reason behind the launch of this app center is to help users to find “the best apps” that their friends enjoy using.

Facebook will sell social applications through the App Center. It is obviously a very smart move as it will allow their over 900 million users to buy the apps through Facebook.

The Facebook App Center. Image courtesy of Facebook

Developers are also being encouraged to create new paid-for apps solely for Facebook. Those who develop apps solely for Facebook will have to share 30% of the price with Facebook.

Facebook engineer Aaron Brady says, “For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga,”

An app detail page will describe to users how a particular app is unique and let them install it before going to it. Facebook will employ parameters such as user ratings and engagement, to decide whether or not a particular app will be listed in the App Center. A new app ratings metric in Insights, will be installed to help developers to monitor their users’ feedback.

Apps will have a star rating based on Facebook’s social graph similar to Apple’s App Store. Apps that have a high rating will be prominently displayed on the App Center, while apps with poor ratings will not be listed.

The App Center will be rolled out to users over the next few weeks. The launch of the App Center by Facebook just before their IPO seems like a smart move, allowing them to show investors that even though mobile is a risky area for them, they are proactively working on ways to earn money from the medium.

This service had been launched in beta last September, for a few users, but is now being rolled out for all users. Now, users will be able to broadcast their own hangout sessions in real-time. The broadcast will be available to users all over the world.

Google+ Hangouts On Air

To activate this service the user will have to select the “Enable Hangouts On Air” button. By enabling this function, the user will be able to broadcast his hangout via his or her Google+ stream, on a website or even directly on a YouTube channel.

This is a chance for ordinary users to go on air before a global audience. While hangouts are generally accessible on iPhones as well as Android phones, the ‘Hangouts on Air’ feature is so far available only on desktops.

Among the programmes that will be aired via this service in the future are a Hangout hosted by Cadbury UK on 11th May as well as one hosted by Jamie Oliver on Food Revolution Day, which takes place on 19th May.

It may take a little time for all users to have access to this feature as Google has just started rolling it out for general use.

Robert Scoble, a popular tech blogger and Facebook user, recently found that a comment he wanted to post on the social networking site seemed to be censored. Scoble tried to comment on a post by someone he didn’t know personally. Instead of seeing the comment below the original post, he received a message informing him that his comment could not be posted as it was “irrelevant or inappropriate”. This seemed surprising as the comment was related to the original post and Scoble claims it was in no way unfit for publication.

Facebook comment censorship or bruised egos?

Facebook’s error message was misinterpreted by Scoble to imply that the social network had taken upon itself the task of analysing and censoring comments. In spite of this being quite contrary to Facebook’s stated policies, Scoble couldn’t perceive that his comments could ever be perceived as spam, so he automatically assumed that Facebook was censoring his text.

It is known that users have the right to inform Facebook about inappropriate messages and comments by flagging them. Facebook then takes the necessary action to block such posts. If it is found that a particular user’s messages are repeatedly inappropriate, that user can be blocked from the site altogether. However, this particular post did not fall into that category.

On enquiry it was found that it was not so much the blocking of the comment, but the wording of the message that created confusion. Facebook has clarified that the comment was blocked due to some features in their algorithm, which is used to block spammers. They are in the process of trying to find out what exactly in the controversial comment caused the spam blocker to get triggered.

The official statement from Facebook on this issue is, “To protect the millions of people who connect and share on Facebook every day, we have automated systems that work in the background to maintain a trusted environment and protect our users from bad actors who often use links to spread spam and malware. These systems are so effective that most people who use Facebook will never encounter spam. They’re not perfect, though, and in rare instances they make mistakes. This comment was mistakenly blocked as spammy, and we have already started to make adjustments to our classifier. We look forward to learning from rare cases such as these to make sure we don’t repeat the same mistake in the future.”

Studies now reveal that more and more people now trust social sites such as Facebook, Twitter and even YouTube to provide them with information about health-related issues. Would you trust medical advice doled out on a social network?

A study conducted by PwC Health Research Institute in the USA has found that one-third of users in the U.S. would trust the health related information made available to them on a social networking site.

The information could range from research and the sharing of symptoms, to opinions about doctors and the effectiveness of various therapies available.
About 90% of those surveyed in the 18 – 24 year age group said that they would trust the medical information shared by others on social networks. 80% of users in this age group also said that they would be willing to share personal medical information through these social networks.

Those in the older age group of 45 – 65 years, however, were found to be less likely to share their information or trust information available through the social networks. Only about 45% of this age group felt that social networks were trustworthy in medical matters.

The survey, which was conducted across 1,060 people in the USA this February, found that 45% of people would let information gained through social media affect their decision to take a second opinion. 34% of them said that this information woud help them to take a particular medication. Users generally agreed that they would trust information given by doctors, but only 42% would trust information given by insurers and only 37% would trust information given by pharmaceutical companies.

Different Attitudes

Only about 2 years ago, in 2010, medical information passed on through social websites had been run down as being from the ‘Wild West’, but now it is being accepted more and more, showing a change in public attitude towards social media and even the Internet as a whole.

Attitudes towards healthcare in the UK and rest of Europe are quite different to that in the States. For one, it’s free for citizens of the UK and most European countries to visit a GP. Healthcare costs in the USA, on the other hand, are high enough to scare off some people and make them resort to seeking medical advice online.

Moreover, advertising medicines and medical services on TV and other media is quite common in the USA but completely absent in the UK and Europe. This could result in people in the US being more receptive towards medical advice from an online medium than users on this side of the Atlantic.

While Facebook and Twitter of course continue to be the two most popular social networks, by a very large margin, Pinterest has overtaken other popular sites like LinkedIn and Tumblr.

As reported in the daily Mail, Pinterest had 104,415,903 unique visits last month alone.

The site which was launched in March 2010 has made good progress in the two years that it has been in existence. Experian reports that there has been a 50% rise in traffic between January and February 2012.

Interestingly Pinterest has a very clear demographic set up with 60% of users being female. Techcrunch reports that in February, 97% of the one million likes that Pinterest received on Facebook came from women.

Agewise, 55% of users are between 25 and 44 years old.

Experian has also reported that in Alabama, Oklahoma, Kansas, Utah and Missouri Pinterest is actually more popular than Facebook and Twitter.

Politicians are already making use of the site to reach out to the public, with President Barack Obama setting up an account for the commander-in-chief and Republican Front runner Mitt Romney’s wife Ann, also has a Pinterest page.

Retailers should keep the growing popularity of the social site in mind, while allocating budget spend for their campaigns.

It has just been announced that Facebook has bought mobile photo-sharing app Instagram for $1 billion.

In the initial stages Instagram was only compatible with Apple’s iPhones. However, they have recently launched an app that is also compatible with Android phones.

While the iOS version already had about 30 million users, the launch of the Android compatible app has given them a further jump in numbers. On the first day itself they received 1 million downloads, and 5 million in the first 6 days.

Facebook has only recently started distributing ads through mobiles and the acquisition of Instagram should help them to improve the user experience. In effect it will also help them to better monetize their mobile site.

Mark Zuckerberg has announced on his Facebook page that the Instagram brand will be retained as it is. “Millions of people around the world love the Instagram app and the brand associated with it, and our goal is to help spread this app and brand to even more people.”

While some analysts feel that this move to buy Instagram is with a view to corner its user base, Gartner analyst Ray Valdes says that it is more likely to be a move to keep it away from the hands of their rivals.

Both Zuckerberg as well as Instagram chief executive Kevin Systrom, have said that users will be able to continue sharing photos on sites other than Facebook, and Facebook users will be able to ‘not share’ their Instagrams if they so desire.

According to the latest reports on this issue, it is believed that Facebook is trying to improve their search functionality in the hope that this will lure away more users from Google towards Facebook.

This report has of course come through unnamed sources, and one of these sources is a former employee of Google according to ‘Business Week’. 

The said employee of Google is Lars Rasmussen and he is believed to be leading a team of 24 people who are set to revamp the way in which Facebook search operates.

While Google is way ahead of all others including Facebook as far as their search market share is concerned, Facebook hopes to be able to make use of the various apps at their disposal to chip away at Google’s market share slowly but steadily.

Google on their part are trying to integrate their social feature Google+ with their search engine.

The main problem that Facebook is currently facing in this endeavour, is the fact that the privacy settings of users allow them to integrate only those results that a user has set for public viewing.

On the other hand the problem Google has to deal with is the fact that their social site, Google Plus is certainly not as popular as Facebook is.

Only time will tell which of the two sites will eventually reign supreme in this game of one upmanship.

About a month ago, Flickr decided to block users from sharing certain images on Pinterest. They have created a no-pin code for images on their site. Whenever a person tries to pin an image from their site onto Pinterest they get a message saying, “This site doesn’t allow pinning to Pinterest. Please contact the owner with any questions. Thanks for visiting!”

A representative of Flickr confirmed that they are using this code for all “non-public/non-safe page as well as when a user has disabled sharing of their Flickr account.”

Flickr’s strategy is, however, only partly effective as those who wish find a way to get around this restriction can do so quite easily. All they need to do is to download the image and then upload it on Pinterest as their own.

Surrounding the very same issue, Pinterest account owners also became aware that they could be opening themselves up to litigation if they pinned copyrighted images that subsequently started being monetised by Pinterest.

Now, in an attempt to address the issue of copyright infringement and avoid getting into legal tangles, Pinterest has updated some of the terms used on their site.

Earlier, Pinterest’s Terms of Service indicated that they had the right to sell any material posted on their site. Now they claim they never really intended to sell any such material and so they have updated their terms and conditions document and deleted this clause from it.

All Pinterest users received an email this week informing them about the updated terms of the service. The website has also updated the Acceptable Use Policy to ensure that any material that encourages self harm or self abuse is not allowed.

It has also become simpler for anyone to report copyright or trademark infringement on the network.

Pinterest has also clarified that they do not automatically own the material that is posted on their site. However, they do have broad rights to use any material posted there.

It is important for users to remember that they should only post material that hey legally own on Pinterest and not just copy something that belongs to another person or company without receiving permission to do so.

The ad service, called New Payer Promotions, was first launched in February to help developers generate revenue through the users who play their games.

Players making a first time purchase on Facebook with their credit card or PayPal account will be shown such an offer. The offers will be sponsored by Facebook. Early results indicate that about 20% of those who purchase such offers return for more within a month. That is a good sign, as it predicts that the feature is very likely to be popular among users.

Developers will now be able to place offers in their games by making use of a new unit called DealSpot. This unit will be seen only by those users who are eligible for it. In other words, only those who have never purchased such an offer before will see it. Those who have made such a purchase in the past will not be shown the offer again.

An eligible user will see an in-game icon that promotes the offer. When the customer clicks on the icon, the offer overlay is seen. By paying $1, the gamer will be offered Facebook credits worth $1 and an additional $4 worth of the developer’s in-app currency.

New payer promotion on Facebook

Developers who already have DealSpot running in their games can make use of the New Payer Promotion directly. Developers who do not already have DealSpot running should load it. Facebook recommends that developers offer in-app currency in order to make the most of this feature. If a developer does not have an in-app currency, the user will be able to redeem the $4 in Facebook Credits.

However, more and more people are now becoming aware of the fact that these services can pose considerable danger if the information conveyed by them ends up in the hands of the wrong people.

A case in point is the feature of geotagging, which is commonly used when uploading photographs on Facebook and checking in on Foursquare.

When a simple photograph taken on a smartphone is posted on a social networking site, it gives out a lot of information, including the location of the person.

Add to this the fact that some people have huge “friend” circles on sites like Facebook. Often the user may not even have met many of these “friends” and may be unknowingly letting out information about himself or his family to the wrong people, who could misuse it.

A real life example of how this happens was illustrated in 2007 when four US Army helicopters were destroyed in Iraq after geotagged photos were posted on the Internet.

Facebook will soon introduce the Timeline feature worldwide. This feature will also make it possible for enemy forces to figure out the location and route to be taken by allied armed forces, thus endangering their mission.

Most of these applications allow users to decide who should or should not see their photos and other information. It is of extreme importance that a user decides wisely, who should be allowed into their inner circles and have access to information about them and their families.

Staff Sgt. Dale Sweetnam, of the Online and Social Media Division of the US Army says, “A good rule of thumb when using location-based social networking applications is do not become friends with someone if you haven’t met them in person.”

This warning could apply equally well to civilians as well. As technology continues to advance and make life easier, it also adds some unforeseen dangers to one’s life.

Results of a study conducted in December 2012 by social marketing software provider, Awareness Inc. have recently been released in a paper titled ‘The State Of Social Media Marketing: Top Areas For Social Marketing Investment And Biggest Social Marketing Challenges In 2012′

The survey, answered by 320 marketers from various industries and with varied levels of experience in social marketing, highlights how professionals can improve their social marketing skills and reach out to a larger audience in order to maximise their ROI.

In 2012, there will be an increased presence of businesses across social marketing platforms, according to the report. Content publishing is predicted to happen at a higher frequency and social marketing management and monitoring will receive more attention.

Among the major challenges that marketers continue to face are the generation of sufficient resources – 77% of respondents identified this is a challenge – followed by the ability to accurately measure the return on investment generated by their marketing campaigns – 58% of respondents consider this to be a challenge.

Apart from popular social sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, marketers are also trying to make use of other resources such as blogs, forums and YouTube. Mobile is also recognised as a growing area for investment.

It has been found that those who are new to social marketing do not give much importance to the availability of appropriate tools and methods, but those who already run social campaigns pay more heed to the availability of the right tools and methods to reach out to the target audience.

Emphasis on Measurement & Monitoring

78% of those surveyed have reported that they monitor social media channels to check how often their brand is being mentioned, while 62% monitor industry conversations for the same purpose. Most of those who have not concentrated on this activity in the previous year, plan to do so this year.

While it is difficult to actually measure the ROI of a campaign, it is necessary, in order to decide the future allocation of budgets. A majority of marketers used the number of new fans and followers as an indicator of their reach. Others used the amount of traffic generated from social channels to Web properties as an indicator of success. Engagement, brand mention across social platforms and social conversations are other ways used to measure the ROI. Marketers with limited budgets were found to focus on increasing presence across social media platforms, while those with larger budgets, concentrate more on social media monitoring and management.

In effect, irrespective of whether a company is experienced with social media marketing or is a new comer to this platform, and irrespective of the budget available, all those surveyed said they will continue to focus on social media marketing in the coming year.

Facebook Premium

Experts had predicted this would happen when Facebook kick-started the process of filing their IPO. Mobile was identified as a point of risk and this new service is a step towards mitigating that risk and  generating as much revenue as possible.

The new service is called Premium.

Premium ads will be seen in the news feed of a user if for instance, a friend has ‘Liked’ the ad. In other words, only social ads in the form of sponsored stories will initially be placed in the main news feed.

Facebook Premium illustration. Image courtesy of Facebook.

Advertisers will be able to start using Premium in April. The announcement was made during a marketing conference held in the auditorium of Manhattan’s American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday.

This is the first time that the mobile version of Facebook and its apps will be used as a source for revenue generation. However, Facebook will have to be careful with the way in which they offer this service as they will have to safeguard the user’s privacy while at the same time allowing advertisers to reach their target audience.

Reach Generator

Until now, marketers were allowed to use Facebook Pages as a free marketing tool. Premium ads will only appear in the news feed and the Facebook algorithm will determine whether or not an ad will appear in a particular user’s news feed.

Reach Generator takes news feed ads a step further. The service allows advertisers to pay Facebook on an ongoing basis, as opposed to a CPC or CPM basis, to sponsor one page post every day, and guarantees a 75% reach of the page’s fanbase over a month-long period.

The service is always on and advertisers don’t need to do anything other than generate interesting content once a day within less than 90 characters for their fans. Facebook guarantees that brands will reach a large percentage of their audience and estimates that the volume of engagement with the brand will double.

Unlike Premium Facebook advertising, the Reach Generator service will only be available to a limited group of qualifying advertisers. At present, qualification requirements have not been released, but are likely to consider advertiser budget and fan volumes.

Pages with Timeline

All Facebook Pages will be moved to the Timeline format, just like personal profiles, by 30 March 2012. The new format will allow pages to show richer content, create a history for the brand and engage directly with Fans via Likes, comments, shares and now even via direct messages.

One of the biggest criticisms of the timeline format for brand pages, however, is that it eliminates custom landing pages for brands, which were a very commonly used tool by most marketers. From April, users will always be taken to the main Facebook Page Wall and page  owners will not have the option to redirect users to any other tab.

Moreover, the cover image on the new profiles is not allowed to call out user actions such as Liking the page nor include any sales or contact information.

AccuraCast’s Facebook Page updated to timeline format

Level Playing Field?

In some ways, the new changes level the playing field for all advertisers and page owners. Brands will no longer be able to create doorway pages pushing users to Like the page. However, brands with deeper pockets will be able to pay their way for higher engagement.

Sponsored stories and social ads have shown better results on Facebook since they were launched. Now, these ads will become the norm, making the user experience better. However, ads will now show up in the main news feed, which is Facebook’s prime property. This alone is very likely to cause a severe backlash as users will most definitely protest the invasion of their personal feed by ads. Here too, brands with more resources will be able to post a lot more to the news feed and those who relied on the free promotion of news feed stories are likely to be quickly left out.

A document in this regard has been leaked to Gawker by oDesk, a company to which some of this business is outsourced by Facebook. The document shows that there are fairly strict guidelines about what is permissible and what is not, although these guidelines can also be quite confusing.

Facebook abuse standard violations document leaked to Gawker Media

It has been found that gory images such as those showing deep wounds or crushed limbs are allowed. Of course, these images of crushed limbs or such should not include a view of any internal organs. On the other hand, pictures showing nipples, including of breast feeding mothers are not allowed.

Any form of sexual activity is also banned even if the sexual parts are covered. In contrast, foreplay even between same sex individuals is allowed, though Facebook has historically displayed a degree of bias against gay and lesbian themed images.

There is some confusion with regards to material regarding drugs. It is alright to show a picture of a person using marijuana but it is not acceptable to show a drunk or unconscious person.

Guns are not mentioned in this document. While Facebook doesn’t allow advertisers to promote firearms or weapons, neither the content policy document nor the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities provide any indication about whether Facebook condones or disallows promotion of guns and weapons organically by users.

While Facebook monitors some of the sensitive material itself, some of their content moderation work is outsourced. This is understandable, considering the amount of material that is uploaded on Facebook by their 840 million+ users.

On the other hand, how they maintain the privacy of their users when they outsource this material is debatable. Even though Facebook says that they do not part with user information, a disgruntled employee of the outsourcing company, Amine Derkaoui, says he was able to link content to users’ identities.

This only means that users should be careful not to upload material that they would rather not have others see, even for private viewing.

With this new feature Facebook will verify the identity of their high profile account holders. Those who wish to have their accounts verified will have to contact Facebook with some form of official identification in order to prove their identity.

Facebook will provide some display name options to the users, once their identity has been verified by them. The users will also have the option of prominently displaying an optional name such as a nickname or a maiden name, if they so desire.

This will make it easier for other users to find and follow the accounts of celebrities such as film stars, journalists, politicians and the like. It will be less likely that they would follow some impostor or another person with the same name.

Facebook competitors Twitter and Google+ already have similar features running, wherein they authenticate the accounts of celebrities that other users may wish to follow. However, the system came under fire a while ago, when Twitter verified a fake account as being that of Wendi Deng, the wife of Rupert Murdoch. Facebook has a far larger user base than Twitter and it will be that much more difficult for them to ensure that they do not make similar errors.

Another advantage of this new feature will be the fact that some celebrities who are better known by their pseudonyms will be able to use their stage name without violating Facebook’s original policy of letting users use only their birth names. For instance, not many people are expected to know who Stefani Germanotta is, but her pseudonym Lady Gaga would be recognised instantly.

A study recently conducted by ecommerce firm Baynote, has found that only 90 people out of the 1,032 individuals surveyed in the United States were in any way influenced by retailers’ pages on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Of this, 59% said that they bought products directly from the retailer’s own website.

In fact, 80% of those surveyed said that the social networks had no influence whatsoever on their buying habits. They claimed that recommendations made by social networks had no bearing on their purchase decisions.

Search and email were the dominant drivers of promotions and recommendations. While 93% of those surveyed used the Internet to research products, 91% rated recommendations from search engines as relevant and 63% found search engine promotions useful.

It was also found that tablets were becoming increasingly popular for browsing through the goods available online, as the relatively larger screen of the tablet as compared to the mobile makes browsing more convenient.

93% of these people also confirmed that they use tablets only as a means to browse the availability of products and then they buy the product directly from a store.

2011 U.S. online holiday shopping experience. Source: Baynote

While this study might alarm some readers, the core findings are not that surprising. Social media remains a great branding channel and should not be perceived as a venue to hard-sell products.

Nearly 1 in every 5 minutes (20%) of the time spent online was for social networking in the month of October 2011. Further, this activity is indulged by 82% of the world’s online population.

Social networking has grown in popularity over the past few years, and has provided a new way for people to build more contacts, as well as making it easier for people to remain in touch with their existing friends and family who may be spread out across the globe.

The Rise of the Global Social Networking Audience
Source: comScore Media Metrix, Worldwide, March 2007 – October 2011

One of the major factors fueling the continued growth of social networks is the increased use of the Web through mobile phones, which help people to communicate even when they are on the go or in regions where they cannot access a wired connection.

Only five years ago, in March 2007, social networking was used by less than 500 million people, while email was the primary online activity, with 528.7 million users. By October 2011, the graph has changed drastically and social networking now accounts for 1,179.4 million users while email has only 916.8 million users. The social network graph continues to grow parallel to the growth of Internet usage.

Worldwide Regional Popularity

Asia-Pacific regional users constitute one-third of the world’s social networking population. However, Latin America accounts for the largest amount of time spent on social networks.

Percentage of Online Population Using Social Networking around the World
Source: comScore Media Metrix, October 2011

Another interesting finding of the report is that women are more social across the globe.

Facebook is of course the most popular social network, and has 55% penetration. Three-fourths of the time spent on social networks is on Facebook, and one in seven minutes spent online are on Facebook. Google+ is a fast growing social network, and it is the only network to have signed up 25 million new users in less than one month.

Inevitably, micro-blogging has also gained in popularity. Twitter is, of course, the most popular micro-blogging site – in October 2011, it was used by about 10% of Internet users worldwide.

Interestingly, these social networks are growing in popularity across all age groups. In fact, males and those above 55 years of age are the fastest growing group.

Revenue Lagging Growth

Social networks deliver the most online display ad impressions, but they do not generate the largest revenue. 25% of ads are displayed on social networks but they generate only 15% of the revenue.

U.K. Social Statististics

Snapshot of social networking in the United Kingdom
Source: comScore Media Metrix

A tweet sent out by Experian Hitwise says that Google has seen a growth in their membership last month, that has more than doubled the number of users they had in the previous month.

According to Hitwise, Google+ had more than 49 million visits in the U.S. itself in that month, which is a 55% increase in traffic compared to the month before.

Google+ share of visits to all categories. Source: Experian Hitwise

Analyst Paul Allen, who is the founder of Ancestry.com, has estimated that Google+ now has over 62 million users, and, of this, 25% of users have signed up in December itself.

While these figures are insignificant compared to the membership that Facebook has (over 800 million) the growth rate itself is significant. In fact, Facebook could not cross the 60 million mark until four years after it was launched.

According to Paul Allen, over 625,000 members are signing up every day. Part of this growth is definitely due to the fact that over 700,000 Android devices are being sold every day, and Google+ is integrated into many of these devices, making it easier for users to sign on.

The holiday season, TV commercials and celebrity endorsements may have further contributed to the growth.

Google has refused to confirm or deny the numbers.

It is being further estimated that at this rate, Google + will cross the 400 million mark by the end of this year.

Facebook’s Messenger app, which is still in the trial stage, allows users to access the social network without opening a browser or while browsing other sites on the Web at the same time.

Users can chat with their Facebook friends, receive status updates and friend request notifications and view the news ticker.

The app only supports Windows 7 at present. Once the app has been set up, a user can log in by right-clicking the Facebook icon in the Windows system tray and selecting Log in.

Once logged in, the user pretty much remains permanently logged into Facebook unless they expressly choose to log out, which isn’t as easy to do. There’s no log out option in the main app window. In order to log out, you right click the Facebook icon and select Log out. Using this option will completely log the user out of Messenger as well as Facebook.

While this strategy of keeping users logged in by keeping the log out mechanism out of regular sight might seem cheeky, it doesn’t end there. The app allows users to ‘Exit’ and close the Messenger app but still remain logged in to Facebook. This keeps users logged in even if they log off the machine for when they log back into the PC.

Much like Windows Messenger, users of this service can also use the ‘x’ button at the top right hand corner, to close the side bar but still continue getting notifications and view chats.

While the app allows users to chat or message individuals, it is so far not possible to chat with a group of friends. As far as user privacy is concerned, the same settings that are applicable to Facebook will be applicable on the app.

The site, called so.cl (To be pronounced as “social”), is meant to help students to share interesting discoveries related to their curriculum with each other.

so.cl

At present, the site is restricted to a handful of universities such as the University of Washington, Syracuse University, New York University and a few other schools. Others who may be interested in this project can express an interest in the project by signing on using their Facebook id or emailing microsoft.

The site looks like a combination of features from Facebook and Google+. It will have a combination of search, web browsing and social networking features.

Bing powers the search function of so.cl. Users can create ‘rich posts’ by finding interesting images and links on the web, and using So.cl’s montage function to assemble them automatically into a cool visual. They can also share videos with friends or any users via ‘video parties’. Although the name sounds like a video party is a variation of a Google+ Hangout, it is actually just a simple way to search, and quickly assemble a list of movies to view together with friends.

Example of a video party in So.cl

So.cl was developed by Microsoft FUSE Labs. The project has been described as “an experimental research project focused on exploring the possibilities of social search for the purpose of learning.”

The logic behind the launch of this site for students is the belief that many students would be interested in the same kind of information. Such a social network would make it easier for students even from distant places to share their information with each other.

Microsoft has clarified that this site is not meant to replace any existing social network such as Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn. In fact users have to sign in through their Facebook account in order to access this new social network.

According to the official post on the Facebook Developer blog, they arrived at this decision because it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain these pages. These app profile pages are automatically generated and similar in appearance to the Facebook pages, but they do differ in features such as Insights, APIs and distribution channels.

Angry Birds Facebook app profile page is empty but still exists to support the app

While all apps have a Facebook profile, most of them do not use this page. This has increasingly become the case as more and more businesses choose to have custom Facebook tabs and welcome pages, which require an app to be created but whose profile page should ideally remain hidden to avoid confusing users.

A banner indicating that these pages are soon to be deleted will now be displayed to admins at the top of their App Profile Pages.

If an admin has an eligible Facebook Page – that is, a Page matching the app name and of the Product/App category – the Likes can be transferred to that page. Once the Likes have been transferred the page administrators will be able continue to publish updates to users from the Facebook page. However, the content of the App Profile Pages will not be transferred. The contents such as photos, posts, insights, will have to be manually downloaded and then uploaded again. All this will have to be done before using the “migrate” button. Once the ‘migrate’ button has been clicked, all data on that page will be deleted.

The migration process can take upto seven days, and it may be several hours thereafter before any activity is seen on the page. If no action is taken before the first of February, the app profile page will be deleted and all its traffic will then be directed to the app.

Facebook will also remove all related graph API object connections on the 1st of March 2012.

New apps will no longer automatically get an app profile page. They will have to create a Facebook page and will be presented the option to do so easily during the app creation process.

The new version of StumbleUpon will make it easier for users to discover content on the Internet. This is the first time in almost a decade that StumbleUpon has gone in for major changes to their site.

StumbleUpon’s homepage now has a new design as well as anew logo. The earlier blue and green logo has been replaced by this orange and white one.

An Explore / search box on the top right hand corner of the homepage allows users to type a search term or select one from the drop-down menu that appears when typing to discover content related to that topic. These “Channels”, which are now emphasized a lot more on the new homepage allow users to focus on subjects of their interest rather than randomly stumbling across the web.

Redesigned StumbleUpon homepage listing Channels of interest

User profile pages have also been overhauled completely. The new profile layout once again focuses on content discovery, making it easier for visitors to a profile to view and stumble web pages that the user liked. Following users and making new connections is also a lot easier now with the new profile layout.

StumbleUpon user profile

One of the most important updates, though, is the change to the Stumble bar. The toolbar, which can be used with most modern browsers, is still the most popular way for users of the site to discover new content. It contains the same features as before along with a more obvious marker highlighting “Sponsored” stumbles via the Paid Discovery advertising platform, thereby making it easier for users to differentiate sponsored sites from organically referred content.

One of the main reasons for this redesign is the huge growth that StumbleUpon has witnessed on mobile. They have seen a growth of 800% year on year and they wish to give their users a better experience that is reflected across all platforms.

Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon’s CEO, told Fast Company, “We’re doing a complete re-launch of the site, and a lot of it is inspired by our mobile experience”.

StumbleUpon continues to remain the dark horse of social media. The site doubled its user numbers since 2010 to cross 20 million users in October 2011 and is still counted as one of the largest referrers of social traffic in the USA, in spite of its user base being a fraction of that of Facebook.

The very first thing users will notice about the Facebook app is that it looks and functions a lot more like the website. Notifications are immediately visible and layers are used to provide instant views of friend requests, messages and notifications.

Facebook’s old Android app was notoriously slow, had multiple screens each of which took long to load even for simple functions and did not have a very intuitive interface. Even something as fundamental as viewing pictures and commenting on them was hidden and required users to know exactly where to touch to show the comment option.

It is now much quicker and easier for users to share photos, and messages as well as to navigate. According to a post on the Facebook blog, with this new app, photos and albums will be twice as fast as before. It will also be easier for users to edit their captions and view comments, both of which were tricky features to use in the old app.

Messages and notifications will now be placed at the top of the page, so users will be able to access them and respond tot hem without leaving the page.

Similarly, a new menu button on the top left corner of the app drops down a menu that enables users to access their news feeds, groups, games and apps with a single click, instead of having to leave the news stream and then go to the main menu.

These new features are for Android 1.8 and require Android 1.5 or later versions. The app continues to be available for free on the Android Market and still does not feature any Facebook ads.

Mobile Ads En Route?

Given that over 350 million active users (43% of Facebook’s total user base) currently access Facebook through their mobile devices, the platform is extremely important for the social network. It is no wonder then, that they would strive to make the user experience as good as it is on desktops.

It will also be no surprise when they do start monetising the medium and launch a mobile advertising service.

It is quite well known that any and all information once posted on Facebook is stored by the website for ever. The information could be concerning a user’s location, sexuality, political beliefs, religious beliefs or any thing else. Even if a user deletes content, it still remains in Facebook’s database indefinitely.

This information is then passed on to marketers and advertisers who wish to advertise to a highly targeted audience. The user is not even aware that this information has been stored and later passed on to others. In fact, Facebook’s advertising policy specifically forbid advertisers from making their ads seem too personalised lest this alert regular users to the degree of personal information the system actually shares with advertisers.

According to a report in the Telepgraph, the European Commission is planning to introduce a new directive that would actually ban targeted advertising on Facebook. This would be much harsher than the current FTC directive that’s just been imposed on the network.

A spokesman for the UK Information Commissioner says, “Facebook should ensure that any data it collects should be used in the manner that its users expect. If personal data is being passed on to a third party or used for targeted advertising then this should be made clear to the user when they sign up to the site and reinforced when users are invited to use an application.”

Facebook has, however, argued that they do not pass on specific information about users but only generalised information. This argument does not seem to have found favour with the FTC or the users, as it is very easy for the marketers to locate the person or persons concerned with the information that is made available to them.

The FTC has now ruled that Facebook can no longer pass on any of this information on to advertisers, unless the users specifically give their consent to do so. In other words, Facebook will have to change their policy from the current opt-out policy to an opt-in facility.

If Facebook fail to do so, they will have to face legal action or pay a huge fine.

It remains to be seen how Facebook will deal with the situation, as it could mean a big loss to them financially. This may even delay their plans of going on to the Wall Street Stock Exchange next year.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg has admitted that Facebook has made mistakes with regards to user privacy, in the past, but he also pointed out that they have been learning from these mistakes and correcting them.

One of the most important messages that the FTC has passed on is regarding standardization of the practice of opt-in. So far most social networks have been following the reverse practice of opt-out.

According to the opt-out practice, companies can approach all clients who have not opted-out of a particular feature. Now they will be allowed to approach only those users who have specifically opted-in for that feature.

Media analysts have remarked that this rule is not likely to adversely affect marketers as most users opt-in for all features any way.

The network will also have to be more transparent in letting users know, who can see their information.

Mark Zuckerberg says that in spite of the fact that they have made mistakes in this regard, they are very particular about this issue. He says, “Facebook has always been committed to being transparent about the information you have stored with us – and we have led the internet in building tools to give people the ability to see and control what they share.”

He has clarified that Facebook has already set right, over the last couple of years, some of the complaints that the FTC has asked them to deal with.

Facebook has also appointed two new corporate officers to make sure that user privacy is protected more thoroughly.

In effect, it looks as though Facebook wants to appear to follow the FTC suggestions not only in letter but also in spirit. It is also likely that these suggestions of the FTC will have to be followed by all other social networks as well.

Knol, Google Wave, Renewable Energy cheaper than Coal (RE<C), Google Friend Connect, Google Gears, Google Search Timeline and Google Bookmarks Lists will be shut down permanently over the next three months.

The products didn’t quite take off as Google had hoped and are therefore being shut down, in Google’s own words, with the aim “to build a simpler, more intuitive, truly beautiful Google user experience.”

A lot of the engineering resources at Google seem to be redirected towards making Plus a hit. A host of new features are seemingly added to the new social network each month. One of these new features is an advanced search option, allowing users to filter search results by author and to browse through the currently trending topics at that point in time.

Similar to Twitter, the trending topics on Google+ show users what are the most popular topics at the moment, and allow them to dive into conversations related tot hose topics.

Google+ search along with trending topics

Now, when a user carries out a search, the trending topics will be displayed in a column on the right side of the page. Users click on any of the trending topics to conduct a search for that topic, which again is very similar to the functionality in Twitter.

Users can also narrow down the search results by using the filters provided at the top of the page, to narrow the content by type – everything, Google+ posts, people and pages or Sparks – and the content source – everyone, circles or self. At present, these tools are available only after a search has been conducted. However, it has been reported by The Next Web that users are asking for the trends results to be added to the main page on Google+.

Another interesting feature that has been spotted recently is the integration of Google+ with Google Places. A number of local searches now show the listing accompanied by the profile image that has been pulled from Google+. When users click on this logo, they are taken to a Google search results page that lists the Google+ Page and provides the user the option to directly add that Page directly to their Circles.

Google+ profiles featured in Google Places search results

This is yet another service that the search giant has integrated with Google+. Even though the network has been criticized for its lack of activity, the developers seems to be determined to make it succeed by placing it in front of users of all other Google services till they eventually wear down and decide to use it!

It has been found that the following of a candidate on Twitter, can give a very good idea about how he will eventually fare.

When the number of Twitter followers of a candidate gains momentum, it has been found that his poll results follow suit. On the other hand, when the number of Twitter followers falls or stops gaining ground, his poll results are also negatively affected.

This trend had been predicted a while ago by Zach Green, CEO of Twitter election research 140elect. Now he has proven his theory based on the performance of the candidates.

He says that Newt Gingrich got a lot of new followers after he announced his candidacy on May 11 and then again after a good debate performance on September 7. At the same time his overall standing in the polls has also improved.

In comparison, Rick Perry received a boost following the announcement of his candidacy on August 13, but he has lost ground since then, in the polls. Concurrently it was found that a lot of people on Twitter have been mocking him rather than following him.

Other candidates such as Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann have followed similar trends. When the number of their followers rises, they also make good gains in the polls, but when the number of followers falls, they lose ground.

Herman Cain too has lost Twitter followers as well as poll points following allegations of sexual harassment leveled against him.

Do these signals indicate that Twitter will be able to accurately predict the results of the GOP poll results? Or is it just a coincidence?

Last week, Facebook spokesperson, Annie Ta said, “Starting on Monday, we are continuing to slowly roll out Sponsored Stories in [the] ticker across Facebook. Sponsored Stories help people see more relevant marketing on Facebook and they can be twice as engaging as ads on Facebook.”

Facebook launched the Sponsored Stories feature in January this year and the ticker was launched in August. The ticker is placed on the top right of the Facebook homepage.

Sponsored Stories are similar to the Promoted Tweets on Twitter. They show an ad relevant to a status update posted by a user. The Sponsored Story will then be relayed to the contacts of that user, making the target audience feel that they are seeing an ad that has been endorsed by one of their friends and is connected to the status update.

Even though the ticker has received a lukewarm response at best, Facebook says that Sponsored Stories are twice as engaging as normal advertisements. Statistics from Nielsen also indicate that such ads are more likely to be remembered. Our own advertising has also found that click-through rates and connection rates on Sponsored Stories are consistently higher than on regular Facebook ads.

According to documentation on Facebook, the Ticker only displays information to others who are already able to see elsewhere on Facebook. Page Like, App Share and App Used Sponsored Stories are eligible to appear in ticker for others to see, but only if they could have already seen them in News Feed.

It will be a while before advertisers can decide whether end users like the idea of Sponsored Stories running in the ticker, or whether they will consider it to be more of a nuisance.

In February of this year, Facebook acquired Beluga, a group messaging service.  They have now fully integrated it with Facebook Messages. The app is very similar to Beluga as well as to Facebook Messages.

The app has been available to users through Apple’s App Store as well as through the Android Market. However, it didn’t get as much traction as Facebook would have probably liked, which is why they’ve now started displaying alert messages at the top of the News Feed in the Facebook Android app, prompting users to download the Messaging app.

When users opens the Facebook Messenger app they see a list of recent Facebook messages. When they create a new message, they can send it to their contacts or Facebook friends. If a message is sent to a user when the app is not open the recipient will receive a notification via their handset. Messages can be sent to all Facebook contacts via Facebook Messages, while other contacts from the phone book can be reached via SMS if their mobile number is verified on Facebook.

Facebook Messenger allows users to directly and quickly contact their friends on the phone, irrespective of their location. The messages are delivered instantly and it is also possible to make plans and carry out group conversations at once.

Google+ Messenger provides very similar functionality, which might be why Facebook is now pushing its own messenger app to Android users more aggressively.

While Facebook Messenger has crept into the #1 spot in the App marketplace this week and is showing a distinct bump in download volumes – since the time it was launched – it is still far behind the likes of WhatsApp Messenger, which has clocked over 10 million downloads.

Designated administrators of company profiles on LinkedIn will now be able to post updates of no more than 500 characters. This will have to be done through the ‘Overview’ tab on the company’s profile page.

Posting status updates on LinkedIn

Updates will appear in the news feeds of users who follow that particular company. The followers will then be able to not only comment on the update, but they will also be able to ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ the update with their friends directly from the company page. This feature is exactly the same as that on Facebook Pages.

Facebook Pages allow companies to also share videos and images and ask their fans questions. The LinkedIn feature is limited to plain text updates and links, which is quite in keeping with the more formal, business orientation of the network.

Companies will be able to share breaking news, employee moves and available job opportunities with their followers in a more professional manner on LinkedIn. Followers of the company will be kept up to date with all the information about the companies they are interested in.

For quite some time now there has been a demand from several companies to allow this kind of instant interaction between the company and its followers. Ryan Roslansky, director of product management at LinkedIn says, “Nearly half of our members follow over 2 million Company Pages on LinkedIn. This is a great way to build engagement with customers, potential employees and prospects alike.”

The popular social network is now in the process of releasing a new advertising format, which will help them to attract more clients, and in effect earn more money.

Building on the fact that Facebook is a social network, ads in the new format will expand when a user’s friend has ‘Liked’ it. When this ad appears in front of a user whose friend has liked it, the ad will expand to allow the user to comment on it and also see other related comments on the ad.

Unlike regular sponsored stories, the expandable ads allow users to comment and interact with an ad unit just as they would any other post that a friend ‘Likes’ or shares. This makes the ad seem much less like an ad, and much more like any other piece of content – image or video – that gets shared on Facebook.

The theory behind this new ad format is the fact that just like movies, restaurants and books, an ad is more likely to be appreciated by a person whose friend has already approved of it.

At present, expandable ads are not available to all advertisers. This ad unit is due to be announced at Advertising Week in New York.

This new feature makes sharing what one does on the web, a lot easier than it was – so much so, that in some cases sharing could become automatic. In the past, a user had to ‘Like’ something in order to share it with others.

Now users just have to click ‘Add to Timeline’ once on any app or website. Thereafter, every article the user reads is automatically published, unless the user remembers to actively turn off the auto-share feature.

While this simplifies the process of sharing things, it is also possible that a user might leaves this feature on and forget about it. If that were to happen, all activity on that website could gets shared with others.

Automatic sharing of a one’s online activity could easily lead to embarrassing situations where friends and family suddenly start seeing updates about views of certain not-safe-for-work articles or photos that one would not normally want to be publicised.

Auto-sharing music listened to on Spotify

This new auto-sharing feature is called Gestures. The concept is not entirely new on the web. The Huffington Post and Washington Post Social Reader have similar features. Once a user joins these sites, every article read is automatically published, unless the user remembers to actively turn off the auto-share feature.

However, considering the fact that Facebook is far more popular than the Huffington Post or the Washington Post Social reader, the possibility for doing damage to someone’s reputation is considerably higher.

This is not actually a violation of user privacy as the controls lie in the hands of the user at all times. Users must be careful to remember to switch off the auto-share feature, once they have finished sharing whatever it is they wanted to share with their friends.

According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, this is a way of ‘telling the story of your life’ as it relies heavily on sharing everything you’ve done. The new Timeline is similar to a regular Facebook wall, but it dates back to the earliest details added online by you.

There are over 300 websites providing daily deals to consumers. The total number of deals being offered is over 200,000, which is a really huge and a daunting task to sift through.  It could put off even the most ardent shoppers, if they had to search through such a huge number of deals, in order to find the deal that is of interest to them.

The new Bing Deals service was launched with a view to simplify the process and help users to find daily deals that would be of interest to them.

Bing Deals is not a new programme. It is now just a place where deals from several of the most popular sites are presented together. Bing Deals will function as a one-stop shop where over 200,000 deals from the U.S. will be presented to users at one go, without having to browse several websites.

Some of the sites featured are Groupon, LivingSocial, Target and Nordstrom. Deals are organised by retailer, location, keywords and category such as restaurants, spas, entertainment, etc.

Deal search results are visually organised to help users select deals of interest. The top daily deals in any given locality are displayed on the homepage. These deals generally offer savings of between 30%-50%. More features are likely to be added to this service in due course.

bing.com/deals

Bing Deals homepage grouping deals by store and category

All industry analysts knew that Facebook would announce something big  during the f8 conference held today in San Francisco. They also knew that many of these changes would be reacting to the growing popularity of Google Plus. What exactly these announcements have now been revealed.

In the last few days, Facebook already introduced some changes, such as the new subscribe button, revamped Friend Lists, a new News Feed format and a real-time news ticker. As usual, the new design has been met with resistance from a number of users.

However, these changes are minor in contrast to what has now been announced.

Most significant of all, is the change to the News Feed, which is now split into “Top Stories”, “Recent Stories” and a “Ticker”. Profiles are also evolving and turning into Timelines, or what Zuckerberg calls “the story of your life”.

An introduction to Timeline

Facebook Timeline with cover, stories and apps sections

When a user shares a post normally, it goes into their news feed. When that user adds activity on third party websites or apps through the Facebook Open Graph, it will go into Ticker, and into Timeline, but not into the news feed normally. The Open Graph and Ticker make a stream of everything users are experiencing and expressing through Facebook.

This is the first time the social network has enabled sharing “lightweight” activities, such as listening to a song, watching a movie, reading a book, or even cooking a meal.

Facebook news ticker expands stories when moused-over

Developers will be elated at the attention once again being given to apps, especially via the Ticker as well as in a dedicated section of the Timeline.

Google+ recently announced updates to improve their popularity. The new Facebook design and features are very clearly aimed at incorporating the better parts of Google+ and improving on them by adding a whole lot of embedded capabilities.

New features include larger images, embedded video, music streaming – this expectation arose after an employee of Facebook tweeted about it. He said, “The ‘Listen with your friend’ feature in ticker is blowing my mind. Listen to what your friends are listening. LIVE”. The post has since been deleted.

The U.K. has about 30 million users of Facebook. So it is expected that 15 million users from U.K. find it essential to log in everyday.

This announcement was made by Facebook’s head of insight management Robert D’Onofrio, during a London Facebook conference co-hosted with Omnicom Media Group.

Other details about the U.K. Facebook user base reveal that the male-female ratio is approximately 50-50.

It was also made known that the users between 18 – 24 years of age are the most proactive. Among other age groups, the 35 – 44 year age group is also very active with a 50% daily log in rate. They also have the maximum number of check-ins.

Users over the age of 45 years have been found to be responsible for generating over 400 million stories each month. Robert D’Onofrio says that “They’re just as engaged content wise as a 19-year-old college student,”

Statistics collected from regular polls of the user base reveal that over a quarter of the users share photos of recent purchases such as shoes. Over two-thirds of the users take friends recommendations into account while making regular purchases such as groceries and 40% of respondents say that they would like to see promotions from their favourite department stores.

Facebook subscribe buttons

This button will allow people to decide from whom they wish to receive news feed updates. In other words, Facebook users can now not only get news feeds and status updates from friends, but they can also receive the ‘Public’ updates of people who they do not know personally but are interested in.

Conversely, the user can also decide whether they want to receive all updates from all their friends or only selected updates.
Effectively, the Subscribe button allows people to:

• Choose what they see from people in their News Feed.
• Hear from people, even if they are not friends
• Let people hear from them, even if the subscribers are not friends

By using the subscribe button, a user can decide whether to receive all updates from a particular friend, most updates, or just important ones. Users can also decide to see only photos from a particular contact or blank-out another one altogether.

Like Google+ Circles and Twitter Follow buttons, the Facebook Subscribe button allows users to get updates from individuals they do not know, such as a politician, actor or singer, provided these people have decided to allow Subscriptions to their personal Facebook streams rather than their Facebook business / brand pages and they make at least some of their updates public.

Ordinary users may also be followed by others who do not know them personally, if they have selected to allow subscribers.

For once, Facebook has taken the sensible route and required users to specifically opt in to allow subscribers rather than enabling it by default. Subscribers are blocked by default and to opt in a user must go to the Subscriptions Page via the menu on the left-hand side of their profile and then click the “Allow Subscribers” button. It is an entirely optional feature and the power rests with the user.

A number of spy cam websites have grown in popularity. These sites encourage users to photograph or video persons they find attractive and share those photos and videos online. Other users of the site can then rate these photos and video based on the appearance of the subject.

More often than not, the person who has been photographed is unaware of it. In fact, sites like TubeCrush specifically reject any “staged” photographs. Photo submission guidelines on the website state, “We won’t use any photo that looks like it’s a setup, don’t cheekily try and get your friends on here boys and girls.”

As a result, it may be quite by accident that the subject of such a photograph may come across his own image on the Internet, or worse, may be informed of it by friends or family members who see the photo.

A London commuter recently featured on TubeCrush 

TubeCrush was set up about seven months ago by four youngsters, Steve Motion, Gemma Dean, Andy Kaufman and Michael Sparrow, from South London. The idea emerged while watching a dating quiz show.

So great has been the success of this site that they now have a similar site New York City, called SubwayCrush, and they plan to set up sites in other cities. They have begun to sell branded merchandise online.

Several other social networks are dedicated to helping commuters date other commuters or post messages to find commuters they struck up a conversation with (or even just smiled at). While these sites have been set up without any malicious intent, their ethics are questionable, at best. If a user does not like the idea of his / her photo being circulated and rated on the Web, a removal request option is usually available. However, for users who are unaware that they were even photographed, this isn’t much use.

Transport for London says that since the London Underground is a public area, taking photographs of people is legal.

These changes to how users set privacy levels for their content have been made keeping in mind the requests that Facebook has received from users over a period of time. It is no small coincidence that these changes come as Google’s own social network, Plus, is quickly growing in popularity and uses a much simpler privacy setting mechanism than Facebook.

It will now be easier for users to share photos, posts, tags and other content only with those whom they wish to share the information.

Most of the changes have been made by moving the controls from a separate settings page to a position directly inline, next to the photos or tags.

Setting privacy levels on Facebook next to a content tag

To begin with, users will be better able to control the information available on their profile. They will also be able to control who can see this profile.

The controls for these settings will now be available in a drop-down menu next to an icon, instead of being on a separate settings page. The user can control the settings with a single click.

Users will now be able to approve photos of themselves, when they have been tagged by someone, instead of being automatically visible to all as soon as they have been tagged. The user can now approve or reject a tag that someone has made for him.

It will be easy for users to see how their profile looks before others see it. The user will now be able to control who sees his posts. He can also add location and tag other people he is with, if he chooses to.

A drop-down menu with the terms, Public, Friends and Custom will be available to decide who should see the photos. This menu will be expanded in future.

Earlier the term, ‘Everyone’ meant that all on the internet could see the photo. This word has now been changed to ‘Public’ to better express what they mean.

Users will also be able to decide who can and cannot see their posts after the information has been posted, unlike in the past, when they had to make this decision before posting the matter. Earlier, users could add location only through the ‘Places’ feature on a smartphone. They will now be able to do so from any device.

Users will also be able to remove a tag that someone else has added, if they do not like it.

These changes will help to streamline and simplify the way users communicate through Facebook. Many of these features are already available on Google Plus which is doing very well.

The changes are expected to start rolling out from Thursday 25th August.

This app helps users to organise a get together or events with their friends. When a user wants to know where his friends are, this new app makes it very easy for him to do so.

Users just have to invite their friends through this app, and when they agree to join, both sides will be able to see each others’ locations.

In order to use this app, the user has to sign up using his phone number. Then he can invite all his friends through his contact list and also tell them the reason for the invite.

At this time he can also specify the amount of time for which this invite will hold good. Once that time limit is up, the invite expires automatically and the location sharing stops automatically.

The friends receive a text message with all the details on their Windows Phone. Those who decide to join in will be visible along with their location on the map. The map can be extended or narrowed down to include a larger or smaller area as required.

All those who accept the invite will be able to see each others location. The participants can also update their status through messages. To see a particular person status update, one must click on the user tile of that person. To see the status of all participants, one must click on the People tab.

A person who wants to stop sharing his location has to tap ‘leave’ on the People tab. He can also send his friends a status message to indicate that he is leaving the group.

At present this app is available only on the Windows Phone in the U.S. but is likely to be added to other devices in the future.

This activity is likely to become very popular as it has been found that 73% of users engage in mobile social networking on a daily basis.

The prime minister has justified his stance by saying that the riots had been “organised via social media” He further says , “When people are using social media for violence, we need to stop them.”

While it is indeed certain that misuse of the social media should not be allowed, the idea to ban the social media seems rather simplistic.

It can be argued that when social media did not exist, riots still occurred. In the olden days, people got together in small groups to discuss their strategy and then disseminated the plans in person. Later when the print media came into being, the use of news letters and pamphlets to propagate ideologies and plans was widely used.

In light of this, a blanket ban on the use of social media would be equivalent to ‘shooting the messenger’.

Also such an act would also prevent those with good intentions. There are many people who are using the same platforms to propagate peace and to help those affected by the riots.

It has now been decided that representatives of Facebook, Twitter and RIM are to meet with the home secretary Theresa May to discuss the steps they can take to prevent the anti-social elements from spreading further arson, as well as to discuss how these websites can be of use to detect those who are responsible for the mayhem caused.

These sites have gladly agreed to meet with the authorities and extend full cooperation to deal with the current crisis.

On the other hand, groups that advocate that people have the freedom to use all media to interact with each other have opposed the idea of banning the social media, and have even compared the move to what governments in places like China and Saudi Arabia may do.

In the last year and a half, Foursquare has developed approximately 3,192 Pages (as of today), about 3,000 of which were developed by hand, by the business development team at Foursquare.

With the increasing number of businesses approaching Foursquare to develop a business page, it was becoming difficult for the development team to cope.

Now, with the launch of self serve pages, the procedure has been greatly simplified. Any business that is interested in Foursquare can now create its own business Page and reach out to followers, check in, share tips and interact with their fans.

Follow AccuraCast on Foursquare

Platforms like Facebook and Twitter have already been successful in helping marketers reach a large audience, other sites like Foursquare and Gowalla are also following in the same footsteps.

Apart from the fact that this service can now be used by any brand, it will also be possible for multiple people to contribute to the page, thus making it a collaborative process, which is ideal for large corporations.

It will be possible to upload photos on the page directly from the web or from mobile phone. When the page is complete, it can be featured in the Foursquare Page Gallery.

Since its launch, over 120 businesses are making a new page on Foursquare each day!

It is possible to filter down this calculation to individual devices by using various Facebook Apps. Facebook has a page for every authorised app that is connected to their system. Through these dedicated Facebook pages, blogger Benedict Evans calculated how many people use each Facebook app on each mobile platform, such as the iPhone or Blackberry.

Evans estimated that smartphones from Samsung, HTC, Motorola, Sony Ericsson and LG jointly account for about 24 million users, while the official Android Facebook app accounts for about 53 million users. Android, in all, has approximately 76 million Facebook users, in spite of having sold only about 120-130 million handsets.

About 50% to 60% of users of the iPhone and iPod Touch use Facebook. Since Apple has so far sold about 190 million of these gadgets, the number of Facebook users is estimated at around 85 million.

Ovi from Nokia has only about 5.6 million users, while the recently launched Facebook feature phone already has about 7.5 million active Facebook users.

These statistics proportionally reflect the number of smartphones in the market using the main operating systems and from each major manufacturer.

However, there are some devices that do not have an official Facebook app. For instance, the iPad does not have an official Facebook app as yet. Similarly, a number of OEMs using Android have their own Facebook apps.

The number of people using the exclusive mobile website is far less than those using Facebook apps. The number of users accessing the social network via third-party apps is about half the number of people using Facebook.

In total, the number of people using all of the apps comes to about 222 million. If Facebook’s estimate of 250 million mobile users holds true, it can be estimated that about 28 million people are using the mobile web for Facebook exclusively.

As of now, users of this social network are allowed to keep their profiles private if they desire to do so.

However, come 31st July and these private profiles will be deleted. This move is likely to upset users, who wish to keep their profiles private as they are allowed to do on Facebook.

A statement issued by Google explains the purpose behind this decision. It says, “The purpose of Google Profiles is to enable you to manage your online identity. Today, nearly all Google Profiles are public. We believe that using Google Profiles to help people find and connect with you online is how the product is best used. Private profiles don’t allow this, so we have decided to require all profiles to be public.”

It should be a consolation to users to know, that the only data they are required to provide on the public profile includes the full name and gender of the user. The user will have the ability to delete or hide any other information from the profile.

Another point in defense of Google is the fact, that even with Facebook, the users name gender and profile picture of the user is freely available to all, even with private settings since the last year or so.

Mark Zuckerberg had then explained that “The site has actually never worked in a way that you sign up and the only people who can see you or your information were your friends. The reason for that is … if only the people who were already your friends on the site could see your information then it would be really difficult to connect with your actual friends and actually be able to have meaningful interactions with them.”

Hence, even though Google has decided to disallow private profiles, they are not actually affecting the user’s privacy any more than Facebook is already doing.

It has now been confirmed, that that service was the launch of Video chat, in conjunction with Skype.

This launch will now make video calling available to all of Facebook’s 750 million users, and will give a wider user base to Skype.

The cooperation between Facebook and Microsoft can also be expected to increase as Skype has recently been bought over by Microsoft.

While people may speculate that Facebook has launched this service as a counter attack to the launch of Google Plus, it is quite obvious that Facebook must have been planning and discussing this deal with Skype for quite some time. The timing may just be coincidental.

As of now, the video chat function is only available on the desktop. Mobile users may have to wait a while for this service. There has been no information about this service being made available on the mobile in the near future.

It also remains to be seen how popular video chat becomes in the near future. It is quite possible that a large number of users may consider video chat as an intrusion of privacy, unlike communication in the form of text messaging.

Power Editor, the first new feature, is a browser-based tool for creating, editing and managing ads in bulk. Earlier this work was done by Bulk Uploader tool. Advertisers can use their Ad Manager to start using this new feature.

Another feature added by Facebook is the introduction of Account Groups. With this feature brands and agencies will find it very easy to manage their ad strategies on Facebook. The agencies will be able to simultaneously access several accounts by grouping them together. This will give them better account organisation and the access to different accounts will be seamless.

To start an account group an advertiser must set a group of accounts under one name and grant or revoke permission for the entire group. He must then accept invites to join a group and select the groups in the Ad manager account list.

Speculations have been running high since then in anticipation of what that ‘awesome’ new product could be.

Reuters initially suggested that this new product could be mobile or tablet related, as Zuckerberg had mentioned that the Seattle office has played a major role in the development of this product, and it is a known fact that their recently improved mobile site was developed in Seattle. If that is so, it could well be the launch of an iPad App.

It is also being speculated, that Facebook may now be ready to launch their new photo-sharing app for the iPhone.

Another possibility being considered is ‘Project Spartan’, which is an HTML-5 based competitor to Apple’s App store.

The official invites for the launch are now out, and contain two chat icons placed very conspicuously. This has now given rise tot eh idea, that the launch could have something to do with a new video chat service powered by Skype.

Facebook has been working on a desktop component of video chat, built on Skype. This service will integrate several features of Facebook and Skype.

If this is indeed the new product to be launched, it will help Facebook to tide over the recent launch of Google Plus, which has generated a lot of interest amongst users. It will also give Skype access to Facebook’s wide user base of over 750 million users.

The launch of such a service will also please Microsoft, which has recently bought over Skype.

For over a year, a number of stories were either leaked out or speculated upon, about Google launching a social network. Invariably, the leaks were followed by denials about it. But now, things are out in the open.

Google has finally bitten the bait, and their new social network Google Plus (or Google+) has just been launched.

Google+

While there is bound to be excitement to find out what exactly Google Plus is all about, it seems to be a combination of features that are already offered by a number of other networks.

“Real-life sharing, rethought for the web” is the tagline for the new network. Users will be required to create a profile containing a name and a photograph. They will then find five basic features. These are:

• Circles
• Sparks
• Hangouts
• Instant Uploads
• Huddle

Circles allows a user to divide contacts into different groups such as family, friends and work. This will allow them to decide what information they wish to share with a particular group of contacts, instead of having to share all information with all contacts. A similar feature is already available on Facebook in the form of Friend Lists.

Sparks is similar to Google reader, which allows users to get updated news feeds by subscribing to sources of news and information. It facilitates the spread of viral content similar to how Twitter and the Facebook News Feed do.

Hangouts allows users to hold video conversations with various contacts at the same time. This feature is also available on Tinychat. The overall premise of the feature, though, seems to be inclined more towards mimicking functionality found on Foursquare.

As the name suggests, Instant Uploads will upload the photos taken on a mobile phone automatically. This is also possible through iCloud, Microsoft Kin and other platforms. This feature, though, competes directly with Facebook and Flickr for photo-sharing.

Huddle will enable the user to have a group chat. This is also possible through Beluga, which Facebook acquired recently and is very similar to Google Wave, which got discontinued at the end of last year.

Only time will tell how popular Google+ will become and whether or not it will provide any real competition to Facebook, which is already extremely popular and quite unlikely to feel any real threat in the near future. The odds are against Google once again, but they have very successfully beaten the odds in the past and just might do so again.

Recent reports from Inside Facebook had projected that the Facebook graph is on a downward slide, following a substantial loss in the number of users in the United States, U.K. and several other countries, between the months of May and June 2011.

In partial contrast to this, the study by UKOM/Nielsen has found that irrespective of actual user numbers, visits to  Facebook have increased and the popular social network has overtaken Microsoft in the U.K. for the first time ever, in the month of May. Facebook is now the second most popular site in the U.K.

According to this report, Facebook had 26.8 million visitors from the U.K. in May 2011, compared to 26.2 million visitors to the various sites on the Microsoft network in the same month.

While visits to Facebook increased slightly from 26.5 million, visits to Microsoft fell from 30 million in April 2011. In some ways, one could argue that Facebook doesn’t seem to have grown more popular, but instead Microsoft has lost popularity.

The same report also shows that the number of visits to Twitter in the U.K. has also gone up significantly during the same time period. The number of users for Twitter went up significantly following the episode about the super injunction pertaining to footballer Ryan Giggs.

Analysts at Nielsen indicate that the growth of users on both Facebook and Twitter is largely due to the growth of the number of users over 50 years of age taking an interest in these social networks.

While the interest by the over-50 population could be a good thing for advertisers, if the youngsters who have so far been the main users of these social networks decide to stay away from them because of the invasion by the elders, it could eventually have disastrous consequences for both sites.

Reding, who was in the U.K. recently, has already warned banks that they would be required to notify customers regarding any breach in data security. This instruction will now be valid for all businesses operating in the EU.

The earlier data protection laws, which were written back as in 1995, did not cover the Internet sufficiently, as it was only a fledgling industry then.

However, the Internet has expanded at an unprecedented rate over the years. Popular sites like Facebook and Google and gaming networks like the PlayStation Network have generated huge databases and there have been several instances of these databases being breached of user privacy. The EU commissioner intends to put an end to such breaches.

“Only recently, we witnessed a massive security theft in online gaming services affecting millions of users around the world,” Reding said. “This incident highlights why companies need to reinforce the security of the information they hold. Frequent incidents of data security breaches risk undermining consumers’ trust in the online economy.”

So far, Facebook has not breached any EU laws regarding user privacy, as they are based in the U.S. The new laws will be applicable to all businesses and services operating within the European Union, irrespective of where the company is based.

Viviane Reding has said, “The law is for everyone who does business on the territory of Europe, whatever the origin of the business might be. So you cannot hide anymore by saying ‘I do not have my headquarters in Europe’.”

There will, no doubt be difficulties in implementing these new laws for companies based outside Europe. Any action that needs to be taken, will have to be done through the nearest responsible national data protection authority.