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Tag: Facebook

Give an Online Friend an “IRL” Gift Through Facebook

Posted by JenThorpe at 8:15 PM on September 30, 2012

Soon, Facebook will have a new feature. The Facebook Gift Store will allow users to spend real world money to send an “in real life” gift to an online friend that they have connected with on Facebook. Does anyone else find this as bizarre as I do?

I understand that the primary purpose of the Facebook Gift Store is to generate revenue for Facebook. I’ve heard this described as a somewhat unique way for Facebook to make some money without having to rely entirely on ads.

The financial aspects make a certain amount of sense to me. Facebook is hoping that thousands of its users will want to spend money at the Facebook Gift Store in order to send their Facebook friends a teddy bear, some cupcakes, socks, a Facebook gift card, or all manner of other products. There is a video about the Facebook Gift Store that shows just how easy it is to send your Facebook friend a gift. The option to do it will appear with the birthday reminders, and in a bunch of other places on Facebook.

It is the social aspects of the Facebook Store that perplex me. While there are some people who only “Friend” their relatives, this isn’t what typically happens. How many of you have “friended” someone who you vaguely know because you work at the same place? Have you ever “friended” a podcaster, author, or musician because you like his or her work? Imagine how awkward it would be to learn that some random person, who is basically a stranger, has decided to send a gift to your home or office!

Let’s say one of your co-workers, whom you barely know, (but who is your Facebook Friend), decides to send a box of cupcakes to your home for your birthday. Should you bring the box to the employee lounge, to share with everyone? Are you now obligated to send that person a box of cupcakes on his or her next birthday? How does one explain to their significant other why a person, whom you never once mentioned, has sent you a gift? I think the Facebook Gift Store is going to bring a whole lot of drama.

Image: Stock Photo Cupcakes by BigStock

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Posted in Facebook

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Social Fixer Takes the Politics Out of Facebook

Posted by JenThorpe at 12:46 AM on September 5, 2012

Those of you who have had quite enough of the incessant politically motivated posts that your friends insist on cluttering up Facebook with, day after day, may want to check out Social Fixer. It is the new name for the browser extension that was once called “Better Facebook”, and that was created by Matt Kruse.

I can immediately see how Social Fixer would be a handy little thing to add to your Facebook experience. It has custom filters that you can use to setup keywords that will be matched with any and all posts. It will automatically “take action on those posts”.

If it finds posts that match your keywords, you will see a tab appear that lets you know that there are some unwanted posts lurking. It will tell you how many of them are waiting. This allows you to ignore the political posts until you are ready to deal with them. Or, you can have Social Fixer hide those posts all together, so you never, ever, have to encounter them at all.

The Social Fixer website has an excellent “How To” that will walk you through how to set it up. Somewhere in there it suggests that you select keyword like: “Republican” “Democrat” “Romney” “Obama” and “Politic” in order to get rid of the political stuff on Facebook. Those of you who live outside of the United States can use Social Fixer to get rid of the political posts that come from your American Facebook friends from now through November.

I think it is very important to be an informed voter. I enjoy reading news articles from sources like Reuters, CNN, The New York Times, and NPR that are about politics. Personally, I find the politically related things that many people are posting on Facebook to be sorely in need of a fact-checker, and frequently mean-spirited.

The comments left on these types of posts are vitriolic and emphasize the commenter’s lack of education. It’s enough to have made me lose my faith in humanity, and is a large part of the reason that I have deleted my Facebook account.

Oddly enough, I first learned about Social Fixer a few hours before I quit Facebook, when one of my very intelligent friends posted something about it on her Facebook page. For me, it was too late. However, Social Fixer might be exactly what you need to keep your Facebook experience a pleasant one as this volatile political season continues.

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Posted in Facebook, Politics

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Rovio Releases “Green Day” Levels for Angry Birds Facebook

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 5:23 PM on August 21, 2012

Yesterday Rovio rolled out the new Angry Birds Seasons levels, titled “Back to School”, but many people missed the fact that they quietly released a new set of levels for Angry Birds Facebook, called “Green Day”.  Yes, in case you’re wondering, the new levels are named after the popular alternative band.

There was no announcement of the release, so we’re left to wonder why the the rock band association, but Green Day is due to release three new albums before the end of the year, so there is likely some publicity tie-in between the two brands.  There are ten new levels included in the update, but no new features or birds included.  The levels each feature a background image depicting the three members of Green Day as pigs.

Angry Birds for Facebook is free to play and includes a “weekly tournament” that features four new levels released each week.  Green Day is the fifth level of the popular game that has been released for the social network version of Angry Birds.

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Posted in Facebook, Gaming

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Busy Week at Instagram

Posted by Alan Buckingham at 3:10 PM on July 1, 2012

Social photo service Instagram just had a big week, although not as big as the week of the billion dollar buyout, but it’s all relative.  This week the mobile app company released a slew of updates, including ones to their Android and iOS apps, as well as to their web site.  There were bug fixes and new features for everyone, and with the power and financial backing of Facebook behind them, they will likely be moving even faster with their updates and upgrades.

Updates to the android app included:

  • Improved search functionality
  • Support for location data taken from Gallery images when geotag is selected
  • Fix for HTC Sensation 4G freezing using tilt shift
  • Improved support and bugfixes for devices using the Instagram advanced camera
  • Addresses tilt shift issues on lower resolution images

iOS users can expect similar improvements.

  • Revamped profile tab
  • Search for users and tags in the Explore tab
  • Improvements to commenting
  • User search autocompletes based on people you follow
  • Visual improvements
  • Speed optimizations
  • Optionally share likes to Facebook (enable in your Profile > Sharing Settings > Facebook)

If you want to access the service from a computer then you got the biggest update of all.  Instagram has finally allows you to follow, comment and like from your web browser.

Instagram, now a property of Facebook, is the number one photo sharing service right now and they continue update and innovate in an effort to stay relevant in today’s ever-changing tech world.   Like other social networks, it’s free to use.

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Posted in Facebook, Photography

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You Have an @Facebook Email Address

Posted by JenThorpe at 2:54 PM on June 25, 2012

Remember a while back when Facebook let you customize the URL that connected to your Facebook page? Many of us went ahead and did that so we would have some choice about what it would be. Mine is www.facebook.com/jen.thorpe.

I know that I’m not the one and only Jen Thorpe in this world, and for some reason, I felt the need to make sure that my name was in my Facebook URL before someone else could grab it. So, I got the snazzy little Facebook URL, and promptly forgot all about it.

Until today, that is. It appears that Facebook has found a use for the unique Facebook URL names that a bunch of us made, and then ignored. I have a brand new, shiny, @facebook.com email address – and you do too (if you use Facebook). The email address is based on the URL that your Facebook page has attached to it. So, that makes mine jen.thorpe@Facebook.com.

If I am understanding this correctly, it would be possible for me to go look you up on Facebook, and be able to discern what your Facebook email address would be. I don’t even have to be your “Friend”.

For example, the URL of Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook page is www.facebook.com/zuck. I haven’t actually “Friended” him on Facebook, but, it is still possible for me to figure out what his Facebook email address probably is. It’s a good thing that I am not one of those spammers who likes to send out a ton of email to random people about pharmaceuticals.

It is my understanding that the prevailing view is that Facebook went ahead and changed everyone’s profile so that the @Facebook.com email address appears instead of whatever other email address you chose to put there.

Both Lifehacker and Gizmodo have created a guide that will allow you to fix this problem.

Now, I went and checked my Facebook information, and I noticed that Facebook did not automatically change my “real” email address to my @Facebook.com email address. I am using Timeline. It seems that someone could send you an email at your Facebook email address and it will appear in your Facebook messages inbox. That email would not get sent to your “real” email address. You would have to log into Facebook and use the Facebook message system in order to find it, respond to it, or delete it.

I can think of one, excellent, use for my Facebook email address. I play some of the Zynga games on Facebook, (and a couple over at Zynga.com). Zynga is always asking me to allow them to send me email when another player sends me a virtual, in-game, item. I didn’t want that type of email spamming up my “real” email’s inbox, but, I don’t really care if it fills up my Facebook messages. After all, like many of you, I generally ignore my Facebook messages inbox.

Image: Stock-Photo-Email by BigStock

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Posted in Facebook

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Facebook Will Have to Pay $10 Million Settlement

Posted by JenThorpe at 10:25 PM on June 17, 2012

Have you ever gone on Facebook, and noticed an ad at the side of the page that had a photo of one of your friends in it? How often have you seen a Facebook ad that pointed out that one of your friends “likes” a particular product or company? These types of advertisements are called “Sponsored Stories”, and Facebook has gotten into a lot of trouble for creating them.

Five Facebook members filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, California. They said that Facebook violated California law by publicizing when a user clicks “like” on the pages of certain advertisers and putting that information into its “Sponsored Stories” feature. Facebook did not give users a way to opt out of having their “likes” included in advertisements in this way, and it did not pay the users whose likenesses or opinions that it used.

The case was heard by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh about a month ago, but the results of the case are just being made public now. The Judge decided that the Facebook users who filed this lawsuit were able to show that “economic injury could occur through Facebook’s use of their names, photographs, and likenesses”. The state of California has a law that protects a person’s name and likeness against it being appropriated for the advantage of the person or company that decided to just go ahead and use it, without having the permission to do so.

As a result of this lawsuit, Facebook will be paying $10 million to a charity. I haven’t seen anything that states which specific charity the money will go to.

I find this entire case very interesting, because I’ve always wondered about the hidden, inner workings of Facebook that resulted in seeing my friend’s faces appear in their “Sponsored Stories” advertisements. Sometimes, I’ve wondered if my Facebook friends were seeing my photo, or my name, attached to some company that I “like”. I live in California, so, it seems to me that I won’t have to wonder about this any longer.

It does raise a question, though. Can Facebook continue to use the photos, likenesses, and “likes” of users who live in a state that doesn’t have laws that prevent companies from using this type of stuff in their advertisements (without asking, or paying, the users who it takes them from)? Are my family members who use Facebook, and who live outside of California, protected from having their face wind up in a “Sponsored Story?”

Image: Photo Hand Cursor Thumb by BigStock

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Posted in Facebook, Law

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Goodbye, Apple Ping in iTunes. I Hardly even Used Ya

Posted by J Powers at 10:04 AM on June 14, 2012

ping2

Apple announced their social network Ping would be removed in the next version of iTunes. It didn’t build the excitement as Apple wanted it to. Because of the integration of Facebook with iOS6, and also integration with Twitter, Apple decided to retire the network.

Ping was announced on September 2nd, and saw 1 million users in the first 48 hours. After that, it didn’t see the growth it wanted. Of course, it didn’t help to be behind the walled iTunes garden.

Ping

Will Facebook Replace Ping in iTunes?

Since the announcement that Facebook will become integrated in iOS6, it makes one wonder if Ping will get replaced with Facebook or Twitter. That way, you still have a social network in iTunes.

ping3

With a social network in iTunes, you can have people publicly announce what they are watching and listening to. It’s technically free advertisement to say “Hey! Buy from iTunes, because your friend Joe did!”. So it only goes to see the integration happen. Either that, or turn iTunes into web-based software.

According to All Things D, Ping will be removed in the next major revision – coming out this Fall. In the meantime, when you download something from the iTunes, store, just choose the drop-down and share on Twitter or Facebook.

 

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Posted in Apple

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Facebook Has a New Plugin For Sharing WordPress Posts

Posted by JenThorpe at 9:20 PM on June 12, 2012

Facebook is always looking for ways to integrate with outside platforms. It just launched something called Facebook for WordPress plugin. It enables bloggers to make their WordPress blog more social, “in a couple of clicks”. You don’t have to know how to do coding in order to make it work. Facebook has created a page that will talk you through exactly what to do.

Unlike some of the other plugins that connect to Facebook, this one was built by Facebook engineers. It seems to me that if Facebook created it, in house, that Facebook should be able to continuously update the Facebook for WordPress plugin in order to make it work with whatever changes happen to Facebook in the future. We all know that Facebook loves to change things around!

What does it do? According to Matt Kelly, who is an engineer at Facebook, it makes social publishing much easier. He said in a blog post:

“Once the plugin is installed, you can cross-post content published to WordPress to your Facebook Timeline and the Facebook pages you manage. You can also mention the names of Pages and friends as you post to further distribute your content”.

This is great for people who have a personal blog that they like to post updates about onto their Facebook page. It is also excellent for podcasters who use WordPress to post their show notes. It makes the process of adding links to your Facebook page, and the Facebook page for your podcasts, much more streamlined.

As a podcaster, I can see how the Facebook for WordPress plugin would make my life easier. Right now, when I finish the show notes for a podcast, I go into Facebook and manually copy and paste the link from my WordPress blog onto my Facebook page.

I have to do it again in order to post the link to the episode onto a Facebook page my husband and I share, (where we post all our creative projects). If I want to let a band that I played in that episode know about it, I have hunt down their Facebook page, and then post the link, again. The plugin is going to let me do all of that right from my WordPress blog. This will save a lot of time!

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Posted in Facebook, wordpress

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A Facebook Mobile Phone?

Posted by KL Tech Muse at 8:30 PM on May 28, 2012

New rumors have been coming out in the last couple of days that Facebook is going to build their own mobile phone. That they have been headhunting Apple engineers who worked on the iPhone. During the initial interviews they are being asked specific questions that only would be asked by someone who was building a mobile phone. Like a lot of people I was confused about why Facebook a social media company would want to build a mobile phone, then I thought about the one thing that Facebook is known for and that is control. Currently, Facebook apps are limited by the platform they are on whether Android, iPhone, Rim or Windows Mobile. There are things they may want to do but they can’t because of the limitations the iOs puts on them.

Facebook on the web is built to be a walled garden, where a person could spend their whole time on line there. As an app on a mobile phone that they don’t control the walled garden has a gaping hole in it. If they build their own mobile phone, then they control the platform, the message and therefore the consumer. This would give them a captured audience they can market mobile ads too, something those who have invested in Facebook have been looking for.

The problem with this idea, is there is no indication that the consumer is calling for a Facebook phone. Facebook will have to persuade both the consumer to buy a Facebook phone and developers to develop on the Facebook platform. Developers who are already spread thin working on the iPhone, Android and the Window Mobile platform. Also do the carriers want another platform to deal with. I think most Facebook users would rather Facebook concentrate on improving the apps that already exist.

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Posted in Facebook, Information, mobile, Phone

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