Google+ tops 40 million users

Agence France-Presse

7:24 am | Friday, October 14th, 2011 

SAN FRANCISCO—Google co-founder and chief executive Larry Page on Thursday said that its online social networking challenge to Facebook is growing fast and has topped 40 million users.

“People are flocking to Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started,” Page said during an earnings conference call.

He added that billions of digital photos are shared at Google+.

Page said social features highlighted at Google+ will be “baked in” to the Internet star’s other online offerings.

“Last quarter we shipped ‘plus’ and now we are going to ship the Google part,” Page said of weaving social and sharing features throughout the firm’s platform.

“We are still at the very early stages of what technology can deliver,” he continued.

“These tools we use online will look very different in five years time and we are building these tools into Google-plus.”

The Internet giant on September 20 opened google.com/+ to the public as it ramped up its challenge to leading social network Facebook.

The move came with an array of improvements Google to the social network it launched in an invitation-only test format on June 28.

Enhancements to Google+ included letting members take part in video-chat “Hangouts” using camera-enabled smartphones or tablet computers, or broadcast video presentations to groups of watchers using “Hangouts On Air.”

Famous figures who have taken part in Google+ hangouts in past weeks include the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and Desmond Tutu, the retired archbishop of Cape Town, who is also a renowned human rights activist.

http://technology.inquirer.net/5419/google-tops-40-million-users/
 

Profound change for Facebook set to ‘lock in’ users

Agence France-Presse

1:17 pm | Friday, September 30th, 2011

Mark Zuckerberg. AP file photo

WASHINGTON – Facebook on Friday begins rolling out its biggest ever shake-up, in a move observers say will not only profoundly alter how its 800 million users interact with the site, but will keep them coming back for decades to come.

The new “Timeline,” revealed last week by chief executive Mark Zuckerberg will also likely shock some users, notorious for backlashes in recent years over even small adjustments to the site, let alone a complete re-think of how their lives are presented to the world.

The changes amount to the “heart of your Facebook experience, completely rethought from the ground up,” Zuckerberg told an annual developers conference.

Rick Marini, CEO of the Facebook-focused “career network” BranchOut, which itself boasts millions of users, marveled this week in a conference call with marketers and reporters how the site had managed to build an enduring model.

“If your Timeline becomes an important part of your life — the diary of your life — Facebook may have just locked people in for the next 20 years,” Marini said Wednesday.

If Facebook is “where all of this happens, all your pictures, all your video, everything you’ve ever done,” he added: “you’re never going to leave.”

Zuckerberg said his team’s main aim was “to design a place that feels like your home,” prompting Forrester analyst Sean Corcoran to note that Facebook was “positioning itself as not just your social graph online, but your life online.”

Pete Cashmore, founder of influential tech blog Mashable, this week anticipated the expected response from users in an article for CNN.com under the blunt headline, “You’ll freak when you see the new Facebook.”

The move, Cashmore said, would be likely jarring at first for millions of people who visit the site every day.
But when they see their lives laid out before them in a neat, single page, they will realize Facebook has “unleashed something so remarkable that you didn’t even recognize it at first: A meaningful social network,” he wrote.

Observers saw a clear challenge to ubiquitous search giant Google, as 27-year-old Zuckerberg explained that the site he launched from his Harvard dormitory room in 2004 sought to be a central hub for the Internet.

The overhauled “Timeline” profile pages, as users will see as it opens up to the world Friday, with access further expanded in coming weeks, shows that the social network behemoth has saved everything that’s ever been uploaded.

Mapping people’s lives — through photos, videos, status updates, comments, and even “likes” of specific content — the new Facebook catalogues it all, literally from the beginning: scrolling to the bottom, every user’s Timeline kicks off with an entry for their birth.

“Timeline is the story of your life,” the young CEO announced last week with a barely contained sense of glee.

Yet apart from a relatively small number of industry geeks who followed the Zuckerberg announcement last week, the vast majority of 800 million users have little idea of the extent of the changes afoot the next time they log on.

http://bit.ly/pWlVCc

New Facebook features cause privacy concerns

Tuesday, 27 September 2011 17:00
Jessica Guynn / Los Angeles Times

SAN FRANCISCO—Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said its new features create “frictionless sharing.”

 

But they are causing friction with some users and consumer groups.

Facebook unveiled last week services that make it easier for its 800 million users to share more information about themselves and their lives online. The social-networking service showed off a dramatic redesign of users’ profiles, a timeline that charts in chronological order all the information users have shared in the past. Facebook also said that third-party applications would—with users’ consent—automatically share every action users take, such as the songs they listen to or the videos they watch.

Privacy watchdogs are urging the Federal Trade Commission to look into the new features that they say push users to share more than they may feel comfortable sharing.

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the watchdog group Electronic Privacy Information Center, which has criticized Facebook in the past, said he was sending a letter to the FTC pressing his organization’s concerns, which he says the agency has so far failed to address.

“It’s getting really difficult to evaluate the changes that Facebook makes, and I say that as a privacy professional. I can’t imagine what the typical user goes through,” Rotenberg said. “Users might opt in to what Facebook is planning to do, but Facebook never gives users that option. It just marches forward and users have to go along.” Facebook did not respond to a request for comment. An agency spokesman declined to say if the FTC is investigating Facebook. The FTC does not discuss investigations unless the subject of an inquiry discloses the investigation, she said.

Privacy watchdogs aren’t the only ones who say Facebook is stripping away its users’ privacy. Writer Ben Barr of technology blog Mashable in a blog post said, “We’re at the point of no return.”

“Facebook’s passive sharing will change how we live our lives. More and more, the things we do in real life will end up as Facebook posts,” Parr wrote. “And while we may be consoled by the fact that most of this stuff is being posted just to our friends, it only takes one friend to share that information with his or her friends to start a viral chain.”

Facebook says it gives users the ability to control the privacy of their personal information. And it has taken recent steps to give users even greater control.

But it continues to be dogged by privacy concerns as it taps users’ information to better target advertising. Advertising sales make up most of the income for Facebook, which is preparing for a highly anticipated initial public offering next year.

With Internet companies gathering huge volumes of personal information, lawmakers and regulators in the US and Europe have stepped up scrutiny.

In March, Google settled with the FTC, which had accused the Internet search giant of engaging in deceptive practices with the rollout of the social-networking service called Buzz. Google agreed to put in place a privacy program and to be audited by a third party every other year. Over the summer, Google launched another social-networking service, Google+, which is seen as a credible competitor to Facebook.

Spotify and other third-party applications are already being made available to Facebook users. The redesign of users’ profiles will roll out in coming weeks.

As consumers tried to digest the latest Facebook changes, another concern emerged: Blogger Nik Cubrilovic accused Facebook of using cookies to track users when they are logged off from the service.

Facebook engineer Gregg Stefancik denied that the company tracked users in a comment on Cubrilovic’s blog post. Stefancik said that Facebook alters—but does not delete—cookies when users log out. But he says Facebook does that as a safety measure and does not use the cookies to track users or sell their personal information.

In a statement, Facebook said the logged-out cookies are used to identify spammers and phishers and detect when an unauthorized person is trying to access a user’s account, among other things.

Tim Whitlock, chief technology officer and co-founder of Brandfeed, a company that helps promote brands, said users should think through the consequences of sharing personal information on Facebook.

“Most people understand that sites like Facebook are free to use for a reason. It’s not because Mark Zuckerberg loves you, it’s because Facebook and its peers make money from your data and from your eyeballs,” Whitlock wrote. “We need to start thinking beyond what our data is currently used for...and wonder what else the information we hand over today might be used for tomorrow.” 

http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/home/life/17085-new-facebook-features-cause-privacy-concerns

Facebook's Zuckerberg unveils revamped profile: Timeline

By Rachel King |
September 22, 2011, 10:39am PDT

Summary: Facebook’s new Timeline redesign of the profile page gives users more control and a chance to look back on everything they’ve ever published on the social network.

If you’ve ever wanted to go way back on your Facebook profile to find a really old post from 2006, now you can much easier than clicking on a link at the bottom forever on end.
Say hello to Timeline. Basically, it’s all of your stories and apps in a new way to express who you are.

The first major announcement at Facebook’s F8 Developers Forum on Thursday morning revolves around what CEO Mark Zuckerberg described as “the heart of the Facebook experience.”

It’s a lot more visual. All of the old basics are there, but in a drastically different presentation than we’ve ever seen before. Yes, there’s the Wall, which Zuckerberg said is “more nicely designed,” as well as visual tiles of core apps (friends, map, likes and photos), and recent activities.

At the core is the namesake of the new layout: the actual timeline. Dating back to 2004 (as well was “way back”), users can scroll instantly (to the point where it made some conference goers a bit dizzy as it scrolled so fast on the big screen) throughout all of their wall posts, photos and more. Basically, the timeline starts with a user’s birthday.

This will also be available on mobile devices.

Timeline can be filtered down to one type of content by clicking on filters (a.k.a. Timeline views). The most intriguing and new filter to the profile is the map, which draws on Facebook Place by showing where you’ve checked-in along with where you lived and worked.

Another new feature is called Reports, which uses a person’s apps and takes content to create a summary of what you’ve been working on elsewhere on Facebook. Of course, this can be broken down by dates too.

Along with the timeline, the most obvious change to Facebook members is going to be the giant “Cover,” which acts like a wallpaper of sorts. Essentially, it’s a giant image that sits at the top of a person’s profile with that user’s normal Facebook profile picture layered on top of the image towards the lower left-hand corner.

“Timeline is a completely new aesthetic for Facebook,” Zuckerberg proclaimed, positing that each profile will be more distinct from the other than ever before.

Looking back, Zuckerberg said, the last five years of social networking have been about getting people signed up and connected with the people in their lives. By now, most people see that social networks are going to be an ubiquitous tool around the world, he added, noting that Facebook nas now seen half a billion users log on in a single day.

Going forward, Zuckerberg argued that the next era is going to be defined by the apps and depth of engagement now possible.

What’s more exciting is all the things that are now possible now that all of these connections are in place.

“Our job is to make this product the best way to share everything you want and the best way to express who you are, Zuckerberg explained.

Timeline will be available to developers starting today, with the beta version launching immediately. Users can sign up for it and it will be rolled out in the coming weeks.

 http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/facebooks-zuckerberg-unveils-revamped-profile-timeline/58753

Facebook aiming to take over our lives with media app integration

By Rachel King | September 23, 2011, 3:00am PDT

Summary: Facebook is taking over our lives, one status message from one app at a time.

If you thought Facebook was everywhere before, brace yourself. We’re just scratching the surface of where the social networking is going: world domination.

On Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the next wave of Facebook’s Open Graph platform, which will basically give way to sharing all sorts of actions and information from different apps and services. Even more basically than that, it will enable Facebook members to share just about anything and everything they are doing online. (Well, at least everything that is appropriate.)

The highlight here is that this is being extended to media and lifestyle apps, such as Netflix, Spotify, The Daily, and Flipboard. Facebook has a whole host of partners, but within a year — you name the app, and these features will probably be available. It’s not exactly the kind of music and movie streaming integration people were possibly expecting, such as an extension of Facebook’s existing in-program rentals from Warner Bros. and other studios down the road.

But, there’s really no escaping Facebook at this point. So if you thought it was annoying when all of those Farmville notifications popped up on your News Feed, just wait. It’s going to get so much more crowded. A peculiar side effect might be that with that much more information being posted on a regular basis, Facebook might see more return visits each day as users want to keep tabs more often.

I will admit there were some examples that caught my attention and favor, which I will likely use when available. For example, there will be direct integration of the Foodspotting app, which will post images and restaurant locations directly to one’s profile — er, Timeline. Sure, it helps define a person’s personality on their Timeline, but in reality, it just helps people show off even more. And isn’t that what Facebook is all about anyway?

The good news is that there are a couple ways to avoid this if you’re not interested in all of this extra information and options. First, you can still choose to ignore certain items and users who post too often. (Come on, we all have someone that we’ve blocked from the News Feed.) Second, you could opt to not participate yourself. None of this stuff is mandatory, so if you see it in an app, just ignore it and move on. Facebook has promised less pop-up notifications and has rewritten them to make them clearer, but time will tell if users really find them less annoying or not.

However, for people who do like to share things often — or even just once in a while and are looking for simpler ways to go about it — then this next step for Open Graph really will benefit. Either way, it will change the way people use and view Facebook — for better or worse.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/facebook-aiming-to-take-over-our-lives-with-media-app-integration/58813?tag=nl.e539

Google+ social network opens to the world

Agence France-Presse

1:12 am | Wednesday, September 21st, 2011 

SAN FRANCISCO—Google opened its Google+ social network to the world on Tuesday, dropping the need for an invitation to join the Internet giant’s rival to Facebook.

“For the past 12 weeks we’ve been in field trial, and during that time we’ve listened and learned a great deal,” Google senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said in a blog post.

“We’re nowhere near done, but with the improvements we’ve made so far we’re ready to move from field trial to beta… Anyone can visit google.com/+, join the project and connect with the people they care about.”

The announcement came as part of a list of the 10 latest improvements Google is making to the social network it launched in an invitation-only test format on June 28.

Enhancements to Google+ included letting members take part in video-chat “Hangouts” using camera-enabled smartphones or tablet computers, or broadcast video presentations to groups of watchers using “Hangouts On Air.”

Google said it has also woven its Internet search expertise into the social network by adding a query box.

“Google+ is still in its infancy, of course, but we’re more excited than ever to bring the nuance and richness of real-life sharing to software,” Gundotra said.

“Over the next day we’ll be rolling out all of these features globally,” he said.

http://technology.inquirer.net/4359/google-social-network-opens-to-the-world/