Facebook As A Mobile Platform: 60 Million Mobile Users Visit Third-Party Apps Each Month

Facebook is huge on mobile — as an application developer. But questions have circled for years around how it can be a real mobile platform on top of operating systems controlled by Apple and Google. But we got a little more data on what it’s already accomplishing on the platform front, today at the Inside Social Apps conference here in San Francisco.
Facebook product director Carl Sjogreen said on stage that out of the 425 million monthly mobile users that it currently counts, 60 million are going to third party apps. And this isn’t just once a month apiece — this is 320 million times total per month, which means an average of five times per user.
I couldn’t get more details on how these numbers break down, except that they do not include Facebook’s own native or web apps. Rather, they seem to mean any mobile app that has somehow integrated Facebook. So, like what Zynga has done with the mobile version of FarmVille, or how you can find Facebook friends to add to Path, or any number of other implementations out there.
Facebook’s goal as a company is to create a social layer on top of everything, everywhere. For mobile, it already offers a variety of platform-style options including login identity, social channels including requests, the news feed, bookmarks, search, social plugins and email. Many of these features only became available in October. The numbers today mean that this stuff is getting some traction. Mobile app developers, maybe it’s time to look closer at how to use Facebook for your next update.

Facebook's new photo viewer UI similar to Google+

They say that the sincerest form of flattery is imitation, and for Google, it may well be the case. Facebook has chosen to follow in Google's footsteps with how they display images uploaded to the world's most popular social network,
similarities to a competitor's design. That competitor would be Google+, which uses a near-identical combination of black frame, large picture on the left, and comment stream on the right. See for yourself — above is the new Facebook interface, and below is a shot from Google+. Unoriginal it may be, but we think being able to view comments and the picture at the same time is a big improvement in this brave new world of widescreen monitors. It's not the first time Facebook has been accused of lifting from its new rival, with its revamped Lists feature being pretty similar to Google+'s Circles (which in turn was pretty similar to Facebook's Groups). Maybe the next step is for Google+ to develop a Timeline-style profile banner

Deleted pictures are on Facebook

If you deleted a Facebook picture, three years ago, then chances are that if you have a direct link to the image, you will still be able to access it. That's because Facebook is still trying to delete content off of its servers in a 'timely' fashion. Ars Technica released a report in 2009, stating that users who thought their photos were deleted, were actually shocked to find out that their pictures still existed on Facebook's servers. Users deleted pictures because of potential embarassment and consequences from either their families, friends or employers. However, if someone had a direct link to the .jpg file for the image, any of those people could see the pictures. At the time, Facebook said that they would work with their content delivery network to make sure that backup copies of the user deleted files were also deleted.

Ars Technica then followed it up with another report, more than a year later and that was when user stories were indicating that Facebook still hadn't fixed the problem. User stories, included a photo deleted in 2008 that was still visible in 2012 as well as photos deleted in 2009 and 2010. Facebook says that the systems they used for photo storage a few years ago did not delete pictures in a timely manner, even when the request was sent in by the user. They said that they are getting new systems, which would delete backup copies within 45 days of the user request to delete photos. Facebook spokesperson Frederic Wolens told Ars, "This process is nearly complete and there is only a very small percentage of user photos still on the old system awaiting migration, the URL you provided was stored on this legacy system. We expect this process to be completed within the next month or two, at which point we will verify the migration is complete and we will disable all the old content."

New App to Find who 'Unfriends' You on Facebook

People who have been "unfriended" on social network Facebook can now check out the person through a new software that can be installed in any internet browser.

The software -- called "Unfriend Finder" -- also alerts users when someone rejects or ignores a friend request.

It is free, and till date has been downloaded 44 million times, the Daily Mail reported.

The script works in browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.
Users see a red counter in their menu bar which comes up "-1" when someone unfriends them.

Facebook itself does not have the option of alerting people when they are removed from the friends list.

Facebook Could Jumpstart HTML5 Platform With App Bookmarks On News Feed

Facebook’s late-comer HTML5 mobile app platform lags way behind thе Apple App Store аnd Android Marketplace. Yesterday I spotted Facebook’s latest effort tο catch up — a test ѕhοwіng bookmarks fοr third-party applications аt thе top οf thе mobile news feed. Currently, Facebook buries HTML5 app bookmarks аt thе bottom οf іtѕ mobile site’s pull-out navigation menu, аnd οnlу shows thеm іn thе iOS οr Android Facebook app’s search bar.
Placing thеm much more prominently atop thе mobile home page сουld increase engagement — thе first step іn attracting developers tο thе platform аnd earning money οn іn-app рυrсhаѕеѕ.
Thе Facebook mobile app platform launched іn October tο hеlр thе social network ѕtаrt monetizing mobile through іn-app payments οn whісh іt collects a 30% tax. Apps rυn through аn internal web browser within іtѕ iOS аnd Android apps, allowing іt tο circumvent Apple аnd Google’s tax.

 Hοwеνеr, thе platform hasn’t gained serious traction wіth developers οr users, аnd thаt’s a serious risk thе company noted іn іtѕ S-1 filing tο gο pulbic. Sοmе developers don’t want tο re-fork production tο support HTML5 іn addition tο iOS аnd thе various Android versions, аt lеаѕt nοt until Facebook’s platform іѕ a proven money maker. HTML5 аlѕο needs time tο mature before іt саn handle thе mοѕt advanced native apps.

Wіth limited сhοісе, аnd nο ads tο promote third-party apps within Facebook’s οwn mobile apps аnd HTML5 site, users aren’t installing thеm іn thе first рlасе. Sіnсе bookmarks fοr thе HTML5 apps аrе οnlу found аt thе bottom οf thе Facebook mobile site’s nav menu, аnd hаνе tο bе located through thе search bar іn thе Facebook iOS аnd аnd Android apps, users aren’t reengaging wіth HTML5 apps еіthеr.
Bυt Facebook hаѕ bееn pulling іtѕ punches. It hаѕ hundreds οf millions οf daily active mobile users whο first see thе news feed whеrе thеѕе bookmarks аrе being tested. Facebook ѕауѕ similarly styled bookmarks οn thе web interface’s games canvas page hаνе bееn proven tο drive traffic.
Thе small percentage οf m.facebook.com аnd Facebook fοr iPhone users іn thе test сουld click bookmark аnd аftеr ѕοmе confusing lag аn internal browser wουld launch Words Wіth Friends, Thе Washington Post Social Reader, CityVille Express, Warimals, οr another game οr app. Thе test mау hаνе rυn οn thе Facebook fοr Android app аѕ well.
Facebook іѕ lіkеlу testing tο see іf users click thеѕе bookmarks, аnd іf thеіr presence decreases news feed engagement οr session length. If Facebook саn gеt more eyeballs οn third-party app bookmarks without degrading thе user experience, іt mау hаνе found a way tο leverage іtѕ natural assets tο bеgіn thе steep uphill battle against Apple аnd Google’s mobile platforms.

India has the second largest user base for Facebook after USA

In November 2010, Indonesia surpassed the UK to become the country with the second largest number of Facebook users in world, after the U.S.
Indonesia finally dethroned from the second place by India. As of February 1 2012, India has a total of 43,497,980 Facebook users compared to 43,060,360 in Indonesia.
In the past 12 months or so, Facebook registered strong user uptake in India. On January 1, 2011, India has a total of 16,915,900 Facebook users. By the end of 2011, the total exceeded 41 users – a 144% growth rate in 2011!

Within a year, India catapulted from no. 6 to no. 2 in the Total Facebook Users (Global) list.
However, Facebook user growth in Brazil is even more impressive. The largest South American country is now the fourth largest Facebook Nation, jumped from No. 13. In February 2011, the largest South American nation has 13,409,220 Facebook users. On February 1, 2012, the total reached 37,907,400. That’s a growth rate of 183%!
The U.S. continues to be No. 1 Facebook Nation in the world with roughly 19% of the total Facebook users worldwide.

Facebook Javascript API Goes Down

Facebook Javascript API, the backend system which allows developer applications and Facebook’s own apps like Likes and Comments to communicate with the data available on the social network, is down, and has been down for at least an hour as far as I can tell, begging the question, “If article falls on a blog and no one Likes it, does it make a sound?”
Okay, that was lame, I’m sorry.
The JavaScript API status on the Facebook developer blog reads:

“Currently, the JS SDK is returning /* Not a valid locale. */. We are working on a fix now. We will update the live status as we have more information. You can following along in https://developers.facebook.com/bugs/20327564310313″

Presumably thousands in the developer community are somehow affected , for example apps like Turntable.fm, Quora and TinyChat have lost their Facebook Login capabilities.

12 things you should know about Facebook Timeline

Facebook recently officially announced that over the "next few weeks" it will roll out Timeline to all users. This means Timeline, the reverse-chronological display of a user's history on Facebook and other life events, which replaces and combines a user's Facebook Wall and Profile, will become non-optional. No specific date was given, and the language used ("roll out") suggests that the change won't occur on one single date for all users, but that batches of users will be transitioned on different dates.

Before Timeline strikes your Facebook account, there are a number of key things to know about the feature.

Basically, until recently, users were able to opt-in to Timeline; now they will be automatically switched over. When you get Timeline, however, you'll have a seven-day preview period, during which you can delete the content that is on your profile and hide what you don't want displayed."

From the time you receive notification that you'll be getting Timeline, whether you want it or not, you have seven days—or until you hit "publish," whichever comes first—to check it out privately, before anyone else can see it. You can also jump the queue and turn Timeline on now, but do note that once you turn it on, you can't turn it off.

I turned on Timeline early, back in September, to learn as much as I could about it and put together some answers and tips for people when Timeline became non-optional. Here's a summary of what I've learned. You can also take a tour of Timeline in the slideshow, in case you want to get a closer look at some of the editing option and other buttons without turning it on.

Q: What is Facebook Timeline?
A: Timeline is a section of a Facebook user's account that replaces the Profile and Wall pages, and merges them together. It shows the story of your life, as you choose to tell it or as Facebook has recorded it, in a visual, scrolling, reverse-chronologically ordered timeline. It's a cross between visual blog and online scrapbook. Fun fact: Facebook Timeline was accidentally released very briefly to the public back in December 2010 when it was called "Facebook Memories," but it was promptly removed.

Q: How can I get Facebook Timeline?
A: Go to the Facebook Timeline announcement page and look at the bottom of the page for a green button that says "Get Timeline." If you press this button, there is no undo! And if you don't take this step, Facebook will automatically turn on your Timeline within the next few weeks.

Q: What appears on my Timeline?
A: Status updates, photos, friendships made, as well as job history, marital status changes, and other information that you've recorded in your profile.

Q: Is the Timeline replacing my Facebook wall?
A: Yes. Timeline replaces your Profile and Wall. But it does not change your news feed page. When you log into Facebook and go to Facebook.com, that feed page of Recent Stories will still be the same. But, when you or visitors go to your unique Facebook URL, such as facebook.com/jillduffyNYC, they'll be able to see your Timeline instead of your old profile information and wall.

 

Q: How do I edit what appears on Timeline and who can see it?

A: Every Timeline entry has two icons for editing: a pen icon in the upper right corner where you can hide or delete the object, and a cog or silhouette (depending on the type of object) found next to the time or date of the activity, that lets you adjust who can see the activity. See the image above for an example. Additional images in the slideshow illustrate these two editing principles in more detail.

Q: Can I restrict which people who can see certain pieces of information, photos, and other details of my Timeline?
A: Yes! In the same way that you can manage who can see a status update or photo, you can limit who sees all the entries of your Timeline. Each entry has a drop-down menu next to it that lets you filter who can see the item.

Q: Can I delete status updates, images, and other content from my Timeline?
A: Yes! Deleting is an option. Just click that pen icon to edit, and you'll see "delete."

Q: When will I be forced to have Timeline?
A: If you don't have Timeline yet, you will be forced to have it "in the next few weeks," according to Facebook. The company has not given any more specific information. And from the day you get Timeline, you have seven days to see it privately before other users can see it.

Q: It sounds like you've used Facebook Timeline a lot. How is it?
A: I must admit that I liked playing with it a lot more than I liked filling in standard profile information. I set up Timeline on a Facebook account that doesn't have too much data in it, so it didn't feel overwhelming, but I could see how an active Facebook user would feel totally bowled over the first time he or she opened the Timeline. If you have thousands of status updates and photos on Facebook, you could be in for a very busy seven days between the time you are forced to have Timeline and the day it goes live for all to see.

You will want to use those seven days to tease your Timeline into shape, adding the permissions you want, deleting or marking private images you don't want everyone to see, and so forth.

But remember, by and large, this is a one-time setup process. After the one-time setup, new Timeline entries will come from your Facebook activity, and you'll be adding permissions and making other adjustments as you go. In other words, you have the tools to edit who can see what every time you put something on Facebook, and those permissions carry over onto Timeline. But, in the earlier days of Facebook, no one had those permission settings, so all old materials is public to all by default.

Other parts of Timeline that I like: that you can add life events, either current or back-dated. Some of the life events are pre-set in Facebook, like getting a new job and buying a home, but you can also create a custom life event or milestone.

Back-dating entries is great for photos. Say you post an old photo from 10 years ago. You can add the year 2002 so it shows up on Timeline with some sense of chronology and context.

You can back-date entries on your timeline with a nice calendar that lets you quickly jump to a year in the past, and optionally, you can add a month. If you want to add a memory from your childhood or back-date photos from your past, it's pretty easy to do so.

Q: What are some of the cons to Facebook Timeline?
A: The biggest cons: It's mandatory, or non-optional. You have only seven days from the date you're forced to have Timeline to when it is visible to all to review what's on it.

A minor con is that the dimensions for display images are unconventional, and I found that I didn't like how most of my images looked when I uploaded them without manipulating their size and dimensions. You can drag an image around the viewer space, but you can't crop or resize from directly within Facebook. (I'm taking bets now on how soon Facebook will build an image editor, or acquire a company that already makes one.)

Q: What is Timeline Apps integration?
Timeline Apps integration lets you post to Facebook Timeline the activities that you do in other apps. There are about 80 apps supported right now. For example, if you allow the Web site Pinterestpermission to post to your Timeline (and yes, you have to turn it on; it's off by default), Pinterest will create a little box on your Timeline where it shows your Pinterest activity. Another example: You can set up the Wall Street Journal online to post to Timeline when you have read an article. Or you have have Spotify post to Timeline when you listen to a song. It's basically the same as apps activity in the Facebook Ticker, but on your Timeline

Google,Facebook, argue against Web censorship in India

Facebook and Google told the Delhi High Court today that they cannot block offensive content that appears on their services. The two Internet giants are among 21 companies that have been asked to develop a mechanism to block objectionable material in India, and the Indian government has given the green light for their prosecution. Although India is democratic (in fact, it’s the world’s largest democracy), many fear the country will resort to censorship.
Last year, India passed a law that makes companies responsible for user content posted on their websites, requiring them to take it down within 36 hours in case of a complaint. Civil rights groups are opposed to the law but politicians argue posting offensive images in the socially conservative country with a history of violence between religious groups presents a danger to the public as Internet use grows. Both Facebook and Google have previously said they can’t and won’t censor content in the country, but now they’re asking a high court to reverse a lower court’s decision.
The case causing all this brouhaha first began with a private complaint filed by journalist Vinay Rai against “21 social networking sites.” The list features 10 foreign-based companies, and could affect websites provided by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and YouTube. He complained the websites were showing images deemed offensive to Christians, Hindus, and Muslims. Representatives of the 21 companies were thus summoned to court and a long proceeding began.
Although the case was originally filed in a lower court, the companies have appealed to the Delhi High Court, challenging the lower court’s ruling asking them to take down some content. Siddharth Luthra, one of Facebook’s lawyers, told the court it was impossible for the social network to pre-screen and monitor everything and that instead users should be held responsible for content they post.
Google argued in a similar vein. “The search engine only takes you till the website,” said Neeraj Kishan Kaul, one of Google’s lawyers, according to Reuters. “What happens after that is beyond a search engine’s control. “If you use blocks, which is very easy for people to say, you will inadvertently block other things as well. For example: the word ’sex’. Even a government document like a voter ID list or a passport has the word ’sex’.”
The lower court has its next hearing scheduled for March 13, 2012. The high court will resume hearing the case later this week on January 19, according to Justice Suresh Kait. This is the same judge who last week threatened to block the websites if they don’t comply. When the companies in question told him they have a global policy of non-interference even if content posted on their services are found to be obscene or objectionable, he responded by saying this policy won’t work in India.
Kait was quoted as saying: “Like China, we too can block such websites.” Today, Kaul replied, according to The Times of India: “The issue relates to a constitutional issue of freedom of speech and expression and suppressing it was not possible as the right to freedom of speech in democratic India separates us from a totalitarian regime like China.”

India delays Web censorship hearing against Facebook, Google

The Delhi High Court today delayed hearings on petitions by Facebook and Google to dismiss criminal proceedings against them in the country’s Web censorship case. The two Internet giants are among 21 companies that have been asked to develop a mechanism to block objectionable material in India, and the Indian government has given the green light for their prosecution. The case will continue next month.
Earlier this week, Facebook and Google told the Delhi High Court they cannot block offensive content that appears on their services. Although the case was originally filed in a lower court, the companies have appealed to the Delhi High Court, challenging the lower court’s ruling asking them to take down some content. The high court has now pushed back the case till February 2, according to NDTV. If their petitions fail, the 21 companies will have to face trial in the lower court, which has its next hearing scheduled for March 13.
The case causing all this brouhaha first began with a private complaint filed by journalist Vinay Rai against “21 social networking sites.” The list features 10 foreign-based companies, and could affect websites provided by Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and YouTube. He filed a complaint last December saying the websites were showing images that seek “to create enmity, hatred, and communal violence” and “will corrupt minds.” The charge is that they’ve allowed material offensive to Christians, Hindus, and Muslims. The punishment for such offenses can be several years of jail time and financial penalties. Representatives of the 21 companies were thus summoned to court and a long proceeding began.
Siddharth Luthra, one of Facebook’s lawyers, told the court it was impossible for the social network to pre-screen and monitor everything and that instead users should be held responsible for content they post. Justice Suresh Kait, the judge in the higher court, two weeks ago threatened to block the websites if they don’t comply. When the companies in question told him they have a global policy of non-interference even if content posted on their services are found to be obscene or objectionable, he responded by saying this policy won’t work in India.
Kait was quoted as saying: “Like China, we too can block such websites.” Neeraj Kishan Kaul, one of Google’s lawyers, last week replied by saying this was a constitutional issue and not taking away freedom of speech separates democratic India from a totalitarian regime like the one in China.
Last year, India passed a law that makes companies responsible for user content posted on their websites, requiring them to take down anything deemed offensive (”ethnically objectionable,” “blasphemous,” or “grossly harmful.”) within 36 hours in case of a complaint. Civil rights groups are opposed to the law but politicians argue posting offensive images in the socially conservative country with a history of violence between religious groups presents a danger to the public as Internet use grows.
Both Facebook and Google have previously said they can’t and won’t censor content in the country, but now they’re asking a high court to reverse a lower court’s decision. The companies argue they can’t be held legally responsible under the law for content posted by third parties, regardless of offensive someone may find it.
Although India is democratic (in fact, it’s the world’s largest democracy), many fear the country will resort to censorship. The case has quickly become a major part of the debate over free speech in the country.

Indian Youngsters Stay Away from Social Network

Social Netowork usage causes fatigue in youngsters in India and as a result they stay away from social networks, according to a recent study.

The study conducted by ASSOCHAM reveals that Indian youngsters have started experiencing social-media fatigue as they tend to log onto social networks like – Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Orkut, Linkedin, Myspace, Friendster, Hi5, BigAdda and others less frequently than earlier when they had initially signed up.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) conducted a survey under the aegis of ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) to examine current usage trends vis-à-vis social networks among youngsters and time spent on these websites.

ASSOCHAM representatives interacted with about 2,000 youngsters (equal number of male and female) in the age group of 12 years to 25 years at urban centres of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Pune during the months of October 2011 to December 2011.

About 55 per cent of all the respondents across these cities said they have consciously reduced the time spent on social media websites and are no longer as active and enthusiastic about their favorite social networks as when they had signed up.

Nearly 30 per cent of these said they have deactivated or deleted their accounts and profiles from these websites and it is no longer a craze among them.

While most of the remaining said they have started maintaining a low profile on social networks as their privacy is being breached and peep in their profiles once in a blue moon.

About 75 per cent of the total sample said they had made a profile or an account on almost each of these websites which was a fad among them when these websites were just launched. But most of these said they barely use them anymore and prefer sticking to a singular site.

About 20 per cent of all the respondents said they hardly log on to social networking websites and prefer staying in touch with their folks via chat applications like Blackberry Messenger, Whatsapp, Nimbuzz, Mig33, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger on their mobiles and computers.

An interesting aspect that has emerged out of the survey was that young Indian women seem to flock social networks more frequently as compared to their male counterparts.

About 500 of all the respondents said they have extended the time spent on social networking by over an hour and regularly log on to keep a track of multiple social media sites to stay connected to their entourage. Of these nearly 65 per cent were females and most of them said they tend to log onto social media almost everyday.

Of nearly 200 interviewed in Delhi about 60 per cent said that fascination with social networking they used to enjoy initially has been fading of late and now they find it boring and sick to see constant senseless status updates and the same thing over and over again and have significantly reduced the time dedicated to the social media.

While about 30 per cent respondents in the city said that they have extended the time spent on networking online and access multiple social networks to keep their friends, peers updated and stay connected to them.

Over half of those interviewed in Delhi said that they indulge in social networking at home, school, college and while they are at work on their smartphones and excess of it has started telling on their mental and physical health and even their professional and personal lives.

Majority of all the respondents said that compulsive social networking has led to insomnia, depression, poor inter-personal relationships, lack of concentration, high level of anxiety, ignorance and rudeness in their general behaviour as they tend to replace real-life social interactions with online social media.

Anonymous warns of Facebook "blackout" on January 28

Anonymous is set to launch a global war against governments and corporations using the Internet. They targeted the United States Department of Justice website, among other sites, last week, in retaliation to the FBI shutting down file sharing site, Megaupload. Now, a YouTube user claiming to be representative of the group posted a video hacktivist group is planning to take down Facebook on the 28th of January. We're having a little deja vu here. Mostly because a previous claim by Anonymous to take down Facebook happened last year. The group planned to take down the social network on the 5th of November, more commonly known as Guy Fawkes day, but never did. Another reason to experience deja vu? They announced the November YouTube takedown via a YouTube video as well.
The video calls to attention that even though the problem of SOPA and PIPA are temporarily over, the Internet rights of the American people are still not guaranteed to be upheld. The video asks viewers to download Low Orbit Ion Canon (LOIC), the same method they used to take down the DOJ website. It works by flooding the servers of the target site with hundreds of packets of information, inevitably leading to a server crash. The video even provides instructions on how to use LOIC and declares the attack for midnight on the 28th of January. It doesn't specify, which time zone within the United States the attack will take place, though.
Of course, there will be obstacles in their path to take down a website like Facebook, which is well stocked with servers around the world. "While it is true that Facebook has at least 60,000 servers, it is still possible to bring it down," the video says. The video then says that Anonymous needs help of the people. Will Anonymous go through with this battle in their "online war"? The November 5th attack failed because there was a lack of organization within the group for the attack. Will they manage to get themselves organized this time around? We'll have to wait and see.

Facebook Announces 60+ New Apps for 'Timeline'

You know those "Alex P is listening to Sleezin' by Freak-Z on Spotify" messages you always see in your Facebook ticker? You're going to start seeing many more of those, and not just ones about your friends' music tastes. The ticker will soon be telling you about everything your friends are eating, photographing, buying, watching, tasting, reading and much more.
When Facebook announced last fall that Spotify and a few other apps would integrate with its Timeline platform, that was just the tip of the iceberg. Facebook today announced the immediate availability of more than 60 new apps that integrate closely with the social network's Timeline presentation.
The new apps announced to day include Foodspotting, Foodily, Ticketmaster, Pinterest, Rotten Tomatoes, Pose, Kobo, Gogobot, TripAdvisor, and others. See the full list here.
The new apps will display users' various activities and choices in the ticker, and in their Timeline in three different ways. A picture of a cheeseburger taken through the Foodspotting app displays as a free-standing update. The "Recent Activity" box in the user's Timeline reports that the picture was posted. The cheeseburger will also show up in periodic summaries of all the foods the user liked in the last month or year
The new apps also make it easy for Facebook friends to share tastes and discoveries. You may see in the ticker on Facebook that one of your friends is cooking something interesting from a recipe in Foodily; if you also have the Foodily app you can just click on the ticker item and you are connected to the recipe.
Facebook's idea with all this is to take things that were once part of our "offline" lives--like travel planning, cooking and music listening--and make them online, public and trackable--to the extent that the user's privacy settings allow. Facebook has wisely given users control over who can see their app activities.
The endgame here is for Facebook to be the single platform where we report and share our tastes--not just with our friends but with Facebook. At some point, Facebook, which could be going public as soon as this spring, will figure out a way to profit from this valuable data without starting another privacy firestorm. Right now Facebook representatives are making no comment on this subject.

Beware! Facebook Usage Makes You Sad – Reveals a Study

If you want to be happy in life, delete your Facebook account right now and cheer yourself up reveals a study.
According to the study by Utah Valley University, the more the people use the hugely popular social networking website Facebook, the more they will believe that others are much happier.
The study found that the carefully-chosen pictures of smiling, cheerful faces which Facebook users tend to plaster over their pages cumulatively convey a debilitating message to others.
While logging into Facebook account many times a day in office or at home may have turned an irresistible habit for a lot of people, particularly the young.
Sociologists Hui-Tzu Grace Chou and Nicholas Edge interviewed 425 undergraduate students about their happiness and that of their friends as the part of the study. Participants were asked how much they agreed or disagreed with statements such as ‘Life is fair’ and ‘Many of my friends have a better life than me’.
They then described their Facebook activity including their number of ‘friends’ and the proportion whom they actually knew. Ninety-five percent used Facebook, and on average they had been there for two and a half years and spent nearly five hours a week on it.
After allowing for gender, religiosity and whether people were single or attached, the study found that ‘the more hours people spent on Facebook, the stronger was their agreement that others were happier’. This was particularly true of Facebook users who stockpiled ‘friends’ they did not actually know.
Those who had used Facebook for longer were also ‘significantly’ likely to agree with the statement that  ‘life is unfair’.
Ms Chou argues that this Facebook-related dissatisfaction is the result of a common psychological process known as ‘correspondence bias‘, in which we draw false conclusions about people based on limited knowledge.
According to Ms Chou, ‘looking at happy pictures of others on Facebook gives people an impression that others are “always” happy and having good lives’.
While Facebook users will know that their real friends have ups and downs in their lives, all they have to go on with their fake Facebook ‘friends’ is a smiling picture.
When that distorting effect is multiplied by the hundreds of Facebook friends that people don’t actually know, it is easy to see how bitterness can fester, said the study.

Facebook shutting down March 15 (or April 1)

Facebook is closing down. The Roman Emperor of social networking is tired of it all. He is heading for pastures new. Oh, and you might never be able to get your photos (or your pokes) back.
Such was the story printed by the venerable Weekly World News in order to allay the boredom of standing in line at Albertson's.
The fateful day of Facebook's going away was said to be March 15, the Ides. The tides of sadness immediately crashed over the Web, as the hurt, the bewildered, the forlorn, and, no doubt, the Schadenfreunds of freunds lamented, jeered, and cheered.
With just a few clicks from the cities and the sticks, the twig of a rumor began to sprout a trunk.